Sign of the Times

I was reading in my Bible the other day a passage that I have read many times before, but never quite caught on to it.  I always kind of chuckle when I read it because it's clear that the disciples didn't get it either when Jesus first talked to them about it.  Silly disciples. :-)

In Matthew 16, Jesus had just ended a conversation with the Pharisees who were trying to test Him, to ask Him for a sign from Heaven.  When Jesus is later talking with His disciples, He tells them to beware of the "yeast of the Pharisees," a comment that prompted the disciples to assume that He was referring to their forgetfulness in bringing any bread on their trip.  You can't really blame them.  First of all, if you forgot to bring bread in the middle of a long day's trip, it's probably all you can really think about.  "What are we going to eat today?!?"  And secondly, referring to something as a "yeast of the Pharisees" is just plain weird.

It was Jesus' response that really struck me this time.  He reminded them of the time He fed the 5,000, and how many basketfuls of bread they collected at the end of the day.  And then there was the time He fed the 4,000 and all the basketfuls they had at the end of that day.  And through this explanation, the disciples realized that Jesus wasn't referring to food, but to a much more subversive and subtle danger, the teaching of the Pharisees.

I suppose it struck me because I suddenly saw a lot of relevance to the whole conversation.  Nationwide, it's an incredibly precarious time, with every day bringing new headlines of bankruptcies, recession, and billions of dollars of bail outs.  In our city, especially, you can't open a newspaper or listen to the news for more than 5 minutes without hearing some story of new job losses representing thousands of Detroiters who are now out of work.  

With all of these stories surrounding us, it's pretty hard to not think about taking care of the basic necessities of life . . . what will happen to our house?  Will we be able to pay the bills?  What will we eat this week?  Will I still have a job next week?  I've realized that many times, the anxiety and tension are so pervasive through our culture right now, that it's really easy for them to invade my thinking without even noticing.  And they don't only invade my thinking.  They consume my thinking.  They become all I can think about and can very quickly turn into a down-spiral of depression or despair.

That's where Jesus' response comes in.  Just like He reminded the disciples when all they could think about was their next meal, He reminds me of all the miracles He has done in my own life, all the times He has provided exceedingly and abundantly beyond all my needs.  And He reminds me to be on the lookout of something much more important than worrying about my next meal.  

I need to be aware of fighting against this spirit of trying to test God, of begging Him for some kind of sign, some kind of huge proof of who He is rather than acknowledging what is right there in front of my face.  And this kind of thinking behaves exactly like Jesus explained when He called it a "yeast."  It starts off tiny and small, almost imperceptible, but given time in a dark and cool place, it quickly grows and pervades the whole batch of "dough."  That Jesus . . . He's one smart man, isn't He? :-)

I'm praying for the wisdom to be proactive in fighting against this mindset, for courage and an increase of faith for God to take care of our needs, and to have opportunities to speak life and hope into the desperate situations that are all around us.  

Grandma

Monday morning I got one of those phone calls that no one ever wants to get.  My dad told me that my Grandma (mom's mom) had passed away suddenly early that morning.  Brad, Samantha, and I came into Pittsburgh late Tuesday night for the viewing yesterday and the funeral today.  It's certainly been an intense few days, but ones that have been full of grace and the full gamut of emotions.  I thought it might help to sort some of them out by sharing my thoughts of my Grandma with the blogosphere.

One of my initial reactions was how sad I was that Grandma and Gabriella would never get to meet, at least not in this lifetime.  I spent yesterday morning writing a letter to our little girl, telling her about her great-grandma and the special pieces of her legacy that I hope she inherits . . . her strength and her faithfulness to name a few.

For example, one of the most touching testimonies of her life over these past few days has been the numerous members of the Eat 'n Park wait staff that have come to pay their respects.  My Grandma has eaten at the SAME restaurant EVERY DAY since 1994.  (Brad is still trying to process this concept.)  Every day, she would eat lunch at this Eat 'n Park with my uncle and throughout the years, the servers and management just become family.  They brought a bouquet of green smiley-face cookies, an Eat 'n Park specialty (my Grandma's favorite . . . she really only liked the green ones).  Brad commented that it was an illustration of the lives that can be touched simply by living a life of consistency over a long period of time.  

I have learned some new things about her, too.  When my Grandma and Pop Pop moved to Moon Township (where they lived their entire lives), the area was largely undeveloped and rural.  They were charter members at the now large, Catholic church that is near their house.  I looked at Brad when I found out and said, "Wow!  Grandma was a church planter!"  My dad smiled and pointed out that it's in my genes.

Our baby girl has quite a legacy of great-grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and so many other loved ones on both sides of the family who have given her such a strong spiritual heritage.  Brad's mom and I prayed on Monday and she gave me such a cool picture that right now Grandma and Pop Pop could be meeting Grandma and Grandpa Palmer (her mom and dad).  Our family kept saying yesterday that while it was a sad day for us, it was a great day for Grandma.  What a day it will be when we are all reunited once again!

I'm including a few pics that I found from the last few Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.  You can see where Ashley got her red hair, and how much Grandma and I liked to catch a post-holiday meal nap. :-) 

The New Slate

I remember when we took a trip to Williamsburg when I was younger and we bought these little slates at one of their gift shops, as an example of what colonial kids used to use when they went to school.  I was always a little bothered that they didn't erase completely and I was thankful for an era when we get to enjoy erasers and markerboards.

I read a few articles the other day that opened my eyes to the "slates" of the 21st century.  I'm sure that this will continue to bring some controversy to the education realm over the next few years, but it was interesting to consider.

• This article from the British publication, Telegraph, showed that in a recent study, more than a 1/3 of children surveyed owned their own cell phone by the age of 8.  3/4 of children aged seven to fifteen owned "at least" one mobile.  Clearly there are lots of implications with this statistic, one being that children are becoming financially aware at a much earlier age, offering to do extra chores for ringtones and using the internet (and their parents' credit cards) to purchase various items online.  While my first instinct is, "What in the world does an 8 year old need with a cell phone?" the closer I get to actually becoming a parent, the more I start to try and think about all aspects involved (both positive and negative) with making these kinds of decisions for your child.  
• Shortly after reading this article, I found another article that showed me exactly what an 8 year old could do with their cell phone.  Project K-Nect placed mobile cell phones in the hands of at-risk 9th grade students in 4 different schools in North Carolina.  They were given access through the phones to special math programs that were to be used in conjunction with the teacher's regular lesson plans.  Students did show some improvement in their math lessons when they took the state Algebra exam.  Again, there are many issues involved with making this decision (i.e. students texting during class, playing games on their phones, etc.), but it does provide an incredibly more cost-effective way of using technology in the classroom verses having a computer for each child.  Again, definitely something to keep thinking about in the future.

It truly is a whole new world for this next generation, and I feel really old when I think that I got my first cell phone my senior year in high school.  As Brad and I have stepped into working with the student ministry at our church, it's also good to keep up on these different trends and issues as we look at the best way to communicate with today's students.  Any thoughts on some things that have worked for you?

Three Thilly Thisthers

My sister Ashley had the chance to visit Detroit last weekend while her husband was out of town, so we got to enjoy a delightful Sister Weekend!  Brad got a healthy dose of life with girls throughout the weekend and he may, at this point, be a little worried. :-) 

Here are a few pics from our lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe.  It's a restaurant where we've loved going while we're on vacation, so it made it seem like a mini-vacation to go there together. :-) (In the one picture, Ashley and I are making our best frog faces . . . I think hers is better.) I hope Gabriella gets to enjoy sisters like mine someday! :-)

6 Months!!

For those of you who wanted to keep up with baby progress and pictures (Jen A.) :-) . . . Here you go! (I wore the same outfit so you could compare.)

• I forgot to post that we picked a name.  (Sorry!!!)  We ruled out Robin, Ima, and Ura (say them all with our last name) and instead selected the name Gabriella Faith.  Gabriella means "God is my Strength" and it's been a great starting point for a lot of my specific prayers for her.  I'm praying that she would be a woman of faith who finds her strength in God.  The nicknames are numerous and I'm sure we'll use Gabby, Brie, Ella, and/or Bella.
  
• I feel like sometime shortly after the 5 month mark I became "suddenly pregnant."  My head knew that I was pregnant, but it was like my body suddenly caught up with the fact.  I swear that I triple in size each day (at least it feels like that).  Sometimes I'll come down in the morning and brush my teeth and start to talk to Gabby insisting that she was not that big when I went to bed the night before.  Just to confirm my suspicions, one day at school one of my girls came up to me and said, "I saw you yesterday and you were not that big yesterday."  Another boy told me that I was getting kind of plump.  I wanted to go into a lengthy explanation of why he should never use that adjective when talking to a girl, but instead I politely smiled and lamented about it later to my husband.
• My girl is an acrobat!  She is VERY active, finding points throughout the day (usually right before I want to go to sleep) when I'm pretty sure she's working on a routine for the 2024 Olympics.  It's pretty cool to realize she's in there and still a little surreal to think that I have 2 little feet inside of me.

That's the latest on the baby front for those of you who wanted to know. :-) Thanks for all your prayers throughout this entire season!

Mrs. Leach

My teaching schedule has finally calmed down a bit almost to the entire other extreme.  I've gone from working about 35 hours a week to about 10.  As a result I've discovered:

• I think I'm finally getting used to being called Mrs. Leach.  One of my coordinating teachers had a last name that sounded suspiciously like Miss Edwards, so I found that I would respond when they called her name as well.  Overall, though, I'm not looking for my mother-in-law as much when people call out, "Mrs. Leach!"
• I realized again that I do love to teach.  Granted these were some pretty ideal teaching conditions in that I didn't have to take home papers to grade, keep up with lesson plans, etc.  I just got to teach, which was pretty fun.  Sure, there were days when getting up at 5:30 got pretty old and my back was hurting from standing, but it was a great experience and I'm so thankful for the opportunity.
• During my student teaching I had experiences in rural, suburban, and urban settings.  It was good to get a taste of each, as my own experience in school was definitely more suburban.  After these past 2 months, I got a much bigger taste of life in an urban school, one which was very "Tale of Two Cities" (i.e. "The best of times . . . the worst of times.").  At certain points my heart would break as I would catch glimpses of the many things these kids are dealing with and the choices that they were making that had some major impacts on their lives.  At other points, I found myself laughing with delight and thrilled to see the progress they would make as well as new perspectives from an entirely different point of view.  It's something I'll continue thinking about for a while, I'm sure.
• I have a whole new respect for women who are pregnant and working full-time.  You are my heroes. :-)