Friday's Five

1.  School is officially out!  Bring on the summer days!

 2.  Promotion for this guy.  High school years are upon us.  Wow.  Just wow!

3.  This handsome boy got braces.  He looks so much older to me.  He is so much older, ten. Fifth grade in the fall.  Time does not stand still for any one.

 4.  This one enjoyed her first full week of summer by sleeping in. . .our bed of course, but she savored the slower mornings, and truth be told: so did I.

5.  All of the kids did well this year: this guy received an award in reading and perfect attendance.  Anthony made honor roll, so did Lene with straight A's.  I'm very pleased with their effort, their achievements, but mostly their attitudes and the kindness they have shown to others.  Now if only, they could keep it coming to each other!

Awards Galore

The year ended the same way it started: Fantastic!  Throughout the year, I have been so happy with how well you kids have done academically.  There was a shift in learning this year with the introduction of common core, but both of you have a solid foundation and I am so happy with your progress.

Bubba received an award for Academic Excellence as he heads off to fourth grade.  Lene Bean received several awards as she is done with her time at our neighborhood school.  Next year she begins middle school!

As proud as I am of their accomplishments this year, no certificate is needed for dad and I to know that you've given your best effort.  That is all we ever ask.  Awards are nice but not necessary. Proud of you both!

My Lene Bean. . . World Changer

Dearest Oldest Daughter,

I have to write this to you today because I just can not reiterate it enough:  God is SO faithful!  He sees you. He knows your heart and He knows you take your job seriously each day you armor up and head out the front door to the public school wielding His love and word as your main weapons.  He speaks to you in the whispers of the words printed in your Jesus Calling Devotional.  He embraces you in prayer as we pray aloud for the intentions of the day and then He uses me to bless your forehead with a simple request as you head out the door--to shine His light.

Once upon a time, I held your little hand in mine as we crossed the street to get you to where you needed to be safely.  Now, I stand at our front door and watch as you carefully look to the left, then to the right and pause before stepping out into the street that separates us for seven hours of our day.  Seven hours!  Bean, talk about a leap of faith and putting all my worries into God's hands!  Sending you to school is a test of my faith... Every. Single. Day.  There is so much that works on your little heart--gossip, meanies, growing up too quickly, talk you might not be ready for. . . and yet still we send you off  BUT with God daily.

Bean, there have been so many more good days than bad days in your six years at our little neighborhood school.  I look forward to our weekly lunch dates and cooking a hot meal and sharing it with you on Thursdays.  I can not believe that in a matter of months this chapter will be closed.  It breaks my heart a little more each day.  But at the same time, God is gifting me this beautiful daughter who I am learning from and growing with!  I do not take this gift lightly, love.

I hope you realize what an incredible honor it was to be chosen as one of the recipients of the Manny Hernandez Kindness Award.  Different times when you've cried because you were passed up for a Good Citizenship award at assemblies--but were kind anyways.  God saw.  When you walked away from the drama and found new girls to play with,  God saw.  When you introduced yourself to the new kid at school, God saw.  When you were polite to teachers and school personnel, God saw.  God SEES everything Bean.  So handle today with love, love, and more love.  I wish I had recorded all that was said about you last night.  My mama heart was so incredibly proud BUT it soared and actually stopped hearing anything else except, the student who wrote, "She has a heart for God and it shows."

Last night's award was more confirmation that God uses normal people to change the world.  You are an ambassador for Christ and He is writing your story.  As Ruth Schwenk said at the Mom Heart Conference a few weeks back, "Our mission and calling as moms is to raise and release children who, like everyone else in God's story are called to glorify the creator."  Who you are in relation to other people is so much more important that what you accomplish.  I would much prefer raising disciples for Christ than having a smart kid who doesn't see the world as his or her mission field.  I am so blessed by your vision for your life--I'm blessed that you desire to shine God's light, be it on a stage, in the classroom, at recess or lunch--wherever you travel.  Your heart is pure.  I love you.

Imprint this award on your heart.  Be kind, even when it's hard.  Love freely, even when you might not want to.  Forgive easily, it's as much a gift for you as the offender.  Be thankful, count your blessings even on the bad days.  Create joy out of any and every circumstance.  You are headed in the right direction, fully armored with Christ's love and scripture.  Be brave in your battle as you continue to be a disciple for the One who loves you most.


From around the universe a million times and back,

Mama

⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.--Deuteronomy 6:6-9

December 17, 2011

Yesterday was a big day for my boy.

He lost his first tooth, received an award, and had opening night of their first play.

I'll post pictures of all three events over the next couple of days.

Today's focus:  Awards Assemblies.

Assemblies in general have been a hot topic in our house this past week.

My third grade daughter was devastated when she did not receive a letter home to parents informing them their child would receive an award.

These assemblies started in the first grade--she knew what letter was in the envelope.

She has been invited several times before.

She was completely crushed that she didn't make "Honor Roll."

I was a little confused being that she received all 5's (Advanced) and 4's (Proficient) and only two 3's (Basic) in sub-standards.

Her dad and I had been pleased with her progress!

The award talk intensified the next day when our first grade son brought home an awards letter.

There were tears all over again because he got two 3's too she argued.

She was right, he did.

I spoke to the teacher to ask specifically what honor roll requirements were.

Now we know--and my daughter was so close and knows what she needs to do differently next time.

She was brave the day of her awards assembly and did not cry as her name was never called.

Yesterday I sat in the audience waiting to hear my son called to the stage.

He received an Academic Achievement Award for his Improved Reading.

The boy is passionate about books now and eagerly is taking 6 to 10 Accelerated Reader tests a week.

His confidence has increased as has his ability.

I was proud of his report card as well as the award!

The Administration proceeded to the Honor Roll certificates.

As more and more names were called--the couple behind me made the comment:
"There are more kids on the stage than there are in the chairs--the kids in the chairs are losers.
They don't have what it takes to make the honor roll."

I turned around with a look that I'm not sure was more disgust or disbelief.

Then I tried to remember my power verse over Thanksgiving week:

Psalm 141:3-4

"Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.  Do not incline my heart to any evil thing."

Then I got up and walked away.

I am not a confrontational person at all by nature--

but my kid was in a chair.

I was fuming and I needed to vacate these persons presence.

Then I stewed and stewed, talked to my best friend, my husband and realized these kids God gave me--are just who I need them to be.

I have worked hard my entire life and always strive to please.

I put in extra effort when I needed to because my desire was to make my parents proud.

Most of the time, academically--I'm sure I did.

But academically, my kids are who they are.

I monitor homework, read with them at night, study spelling words. . .

but I am not them.

Ultimately, they will perform in the classroom the way they were built to perform.

The End.

I'm a teacher by nature.

I'm a teacher in life.

My goal for all my students is success.

But that success might not look the same to each one of the students.

My own children may not "measure up" to the high standards their school has set in terms of Honor Roll this time, but that doesn't lessen their accomplishment--the one we praised them for before.

How or why should it be different just because the "school" did not recognize what they did.

That couple behind me made me very sad.

I've been battling my own thought in regards to education and my job as a teacher the past several months.

It's not so much the job I am growing disheartened by...

it's the changes the state keeps imposing.

It's this big push for high test scores and there seems to be less and less time for the "fun stuff"

we used to do to connect with kids and find their passions.

It's this idea that a child's success is measured by only their test scores.

What happened to children with good character and high moral standards?

Where are the awards for that?

My goal for my own children is not that they be these academic scholars that get in to Ivy League schools.  They can be, and I would be fine with that--but my ultimate goal for my kids is that they find personal success.  The kind that can't be measured by report cards, or awards assemblies.

I want them to have a heart for the needy, to have compassionate hearts, to speak up for those that might not be heard, to serve, to love like Jesus did.

I feel like the message these assemblies sometimes suggest at an ever so young age is

"You are not good enough."

But Jesus tells us,

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 

That is more than enough.

Always.