Lord, Teach Me to Pray

     My small group just finished reading the book Lord, Teach Me to Pray in 28 Days by Kay Arthur. It is a good book and I didn't realize just how much I had learned from it unitl tonight. After a wonderful evening with my small group friends, I wondered why I was feeling restless with God. I felt defeated and unwanted (not by any of my bible study memebers) but with other things. So I decided to get out my prayer journal and pray. 
    Originally when I started writing I was going to pray for my future husband and ask God why it's taking SOOO long for him to get here...but as I started writing I remembered "how to pray" As I wrote, my pen kept flowing and not one word was what I had intended to write originally. Through my prayer God showed me some areas of my heart that need work. I decided to blog about it and include the prayer below so that it can be a reminder to me and hopefully a reminder to others that God is there. Prayer is our connection to him. This is my favorite quote from the teach me to pray book:
       "Someone has said that prayer and the Word are like two wings of a bird- both are necessary if the bird is to fly. And both are necessary if we want to soar in our relationship with our heavenly Father."

Dear Lord,

               Please help me! You are great and mighty to save and I need you to rescue me. I have seen your miracles in my own life and in the lives of others that I love. I know you care for and love me more than anything (I’m your child). You don’t need me, You WANT me. And honestly at times, I don’t want you or your plans, but I know that I NEED you. I’m nothing without your love. You are the maker of heaven and earth. Ruler and creator of ALL, even me. You took the time to create me, even though you knew I’d be sinful and filthy, you made me anyway, because you love me. You designed me and set a purpose for my life. When I stop and think about it I am humbled and awestruck. How can I do anything but praise you? Why do my lips, the very same lips that praise you with one breath turn and slander another brother or sister with the next? Why do I seem to think that my plans are better than yours? I know your plans are higher and bigger and better than anything I could ever dream of. But still I think I know best. I look at my life and the blessings you’ve poured out on me and I still question you. What is my problem Lord? Why am I so selfish and consumed by the things I don’t have? I am a spoiled little brat. I want everything done my way and in my timing. And while I may not through myself on the floor in a tantrum when things don’t go my way, I sure am good at pouting. In fact, it’s actually something I used to take pride in. How sad is that?? Pride itself is sinful. But I was taking pride in the fact that I was so good at pouting to get my way! Like I said, spoiled brat.

                        God, your word tells me that you will grant me the desires of my heart if I will trust in you. For the longest time I was manipulating your word so that I could say, “Ok God I trust you, now will you please give me what I want?”  But I have learned in time that if I fully trust you, my hearts desires will begin to line up with your will for me. I’m sorry God for twisting your words.

                        My prayer tonight is that I continue to grow you will continue to break me of my selfishness. Continue to show me when I try to change your promises to fit my circumstances. Enlighten me with your love and fill me with your joy. Let me be a shining light for you. I want to love you and desire you more than anything else in my life. You alone are worthy. You alone are enough. Forever.

Love,

Janae

Pretty Little Liars

The following is a conversation between me and two of my students today:

This is what was said as I was talking with one of my boys about him calling a little girl in my class a liar (I’ll call him Tommy and her Sarah).

Tommy- “I think it’s fair that I called her a liar, because she called me a bad name first!”

Me- “Well, just because someone says something mean to you doesn’t make it ok to call them a name back. But what name did she call you?”

Tommy-“Uh…well... what was it? Oh yeah, she called me…a pretentious jerk!”

Me-“Oh, a pretentious jerk? Really??

Tommy-“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

Separate conversation – me to Sarah

Me-“Did you call Tommy a bad name?”

Sarah-“No Miss Bass I didn’t’.”

Me-“Are you sure you didn’t say anything mean? You didn’t call him anything like a pretentious jerk??”

Sarah-“No Miss Bass I promise. First of all, I don’t know what that word even means, and second I don’t say things like that because I’m a Christian.”

Haha, you just have to love the stuff they come up with. They are so cute. Sometimes it’s hard as the teacher to know what to believe (however, not in this particular case).  For the record Tommy did admit to me later that he made that up. But it got me thinking a lot about lying. It’s crazy how many times a day I catch my students in lies, from talking in the hallway, to writing mean notes about other students and then signing someone else’s name. And these are only 3^rd graders. Lying isn’t something we are trained to do. Ask the two year old who snuck a cookie when their mom wasn’t looking and 9 times out of 10 they will skew the truth. Lying is something we must be trained NOT to do.

I try so hard to instill in my kids that honesty is the best policy. The other day I heard one of my girls say, “you should just tell the truth, because then your punishment will be less.” Yes, many times this is a perk to telling the truth, but it should not be our motive for being honest. We should tell the truth because it’s the right thing to do. So in Miss Bass’ class (and hopefully through their lives) honesty is the BEST policy!

“What is desired is a steadfast love, and a poor man is far better than a liar.”

–Proverbs 19:22

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.”

-Colossians 3:9

Biographies

I'm a little late on posting this one...

For the three weeks leading up to spring break my students worked on researching and writing biographies. This was a fun and interesting process (I have made a few notes on what I will do differently next year) but overall I was very impressed with my students work. They chose all sorts of famous people to research...from Amelia Earhart and Thomas Edison to Ringo Star and Rob Zombie (I would like to note that I strongly encouraged these two to make other choices, but they insisted!  

Finally once they had finished the research and writing process I invited their parents to come in and watch the students present their biography to the class. I also told my kids that for 5 bonus points they could dress up as their person of interest. It was so much for to see them dressed up! Below I have posted a few of my favorites, if there would have been an award for best dressed they would’ve won!

Big Hearts = Deep Pain

I have a big heart. I get it from my dad. When bad things happen to me or the people I love I feel them very deeply, sometimes I think I feel the pain all the way down to my toes. I am not someone who can turn off my thoughts or worries. When I’m upset about something it shows in everything I do, I’m not very good at hiding my true feelings.

          Lately I’ve been feeling like my big heart is a curse. I have several situations in my life right now that I have absolutely no control over, and it’s killing me because I can’t fix them. When someone I love is hurt I want to rush to their side and help them. If I see a friend heading down a path I know is unsafe I want to run to them and say, “What are you doing, you know this is a bad idea!” (and usually when it’s a friend, I that’s exactly what I do...whether they asked for my advice or not…) But this week I have a couple of my students that I’m worried about, and it’s a different kind of worry than I’ve experienced before. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a parent and worry about your children. These kids aren’t even technically mine, and I can’t get them off my mind. I know that I am loving them everyday. And I know that I’m “technically” doing everything I can, but I just don’t feel like it’s enough.

          Monday night I went to Coffee Conversations at my church, it’s our ladies night out. The speaker talked about how we are never going to “be enough”. She went through the lies we tell ourselves…I will never be the perfect teacher. I will never be the perfect daughter. I will never be pretty enough. When I get married I will never be a good enough wife….and the list goes on. Then she said that God IS ENOUGH and through HIM we are enough. So tonight as I am feeling 99% defeated and like I’m not enough, I am going to remember that I serve a mighty, powerful God and He is enough. He is enough for me. He is enough for my students. And He is enough for you.

          So even though it hurts like crazy when my big ol tender heart gets broken I am thankful I have it. God gave me it for a reason. And I will continue to love, even when it hurts. It is my prayer that teaching will not harden my heart over time and that I will feel every situation my future students go through like I’m feeling them now for the first time.  

“If our God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give all things.’ –Romans 8:31-32

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13 **This was my Grandma and Grandpa’s favorite verse**

On a brighter note I have a couple cute kid quotes:

The other day I told my kids to put their initials on note cards they are taking for biographies we are writing. I modeled how I wanted this to look and wrote my own initials on the board, JB. I was quick told, “Oh my gosh Miss Bass you are so lucky! You have the same initials as Justin Bieber!”   -I was not as excited as my girls :)

And today when I was feeling down my autistic student lifted my spirits with this one. As we were packing up at the end of the day I told him to get his coat and his backpack ready to which he replied, “Miss Bass, I don’t got my coat and I don’t got my backpack, I’m travelin light!” I was so cute I didn’t even correct his poor grammar!

Love Quiz

          Valentine’s Day is the best holiday ever when you are a teacher. The kids get so excited about giving out their Valentines, making their Valentine boxes, and of course eating lots of sugary treats. And as their teacher you get lots of sweet notes and fun treats too!

          On Monday afternoon my we had the full out classroom party, with parents helping, cookies, and party stations. The kids loved it and it everything went pretty smoothly. But my favorite part of the day was Monday morning.  That morning we did some Valentine’s themed lessons. During reading we read about the history of the holiday and practiced telling the difference between facts and opinions by reading statements about Valentine’s Day. Then for writing I taught a lesson on figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, and alliteration). We came up with a list of examples of each; of course they were all about love. It was so fun! Some of my kids were really deep and it was so interesting to see the difference between the boy’s answers and the girl’s answers, even as 3^rd graders they are already so different! For example; one girl said "Love is like a fairytale." and the boy next to her said "Love is death."

       Finally, I had the kids use their figurative language to write poems about love. I even told the boys their poems could be “anti-love” poems. But before they started writing I had them take a little “love” quiz that I put together to help inspire they poetry. It was the highlight of my entire day! Their thoughts on love are great, so I’m going to share some of my favorite answers with you, enjoy!

Question #1: What do you think is the right age to get married?

-25 because if you get married any younger that might be a bad idea

-21, it seems appropriate

-20, 30, 40, or 50

-34 years old

-I think the right age to get married is 25, because you’re not too old and you’re not too young

-100 because I don’t like getting kissed or married

-23 or 25 because I think that’s when my mom and dad got married

*Overall the average age was 25 (which made me happy, there’s still hope for me, haha)*

Question #2: What is falling in love like?

-Having a partner forever

-You just look into each others eyes and you know or not.

-When love knocks down a door and crawls into your heart, it never comes out.

-It’s a tingly feeling

-Falling in love is like a calm river

-Falling in love is like seeing someone for the first time

-It’s like falling into a pool of roses

-I think it feels good and squishy

-I think falling in love is like watching T.V.

-It’s like meeting your dream man

-Falling in love is like getting hit

Question #3: How can you tell if two adults eating dinner at a restaurant are in love?

-If they have a rose in the middle of the table

-Gazing at each other and sticking their tongues out

-The way they look in each others eyes

-If they have candles, dark lighting, fancy clothes, and by the way they talk to each other

-If they are feeding each other

-I can tell if the guy pulls out a ring

-If they are laughing and stuff like that

-They are embarrassing themselves

-If they are mumbling

Question #4 Do you want to love someone SOMEDAY?

-Yes!

-Yes, because I don’t want to be lonely

-Maybe

-Not really

-Yes, yes I do!

-Maybe, I don’t know

-Yes, I want to get married (a boy wrote that!)

Question #5 Do you feel loved? By who?? ( Mom, Dad, Siblings, Friends, ect)

-Yes, I feel loved by my dad

-By my mom and dad

-My family

-Yes, I feel loved by Justin Bieber

-My mom

-I feel loved by my family and friends inklooding (including) you Miss Bass!

-My mom and dad, by you Miss Bass, by my whole family

I love just love their hearts! And I hope reading their thoughts on love made you smile and remember how simple life is as a child. They have it so right sometimes. Being a grown up often complicates the simple joys of life. I know I wish I could be as carefree as some of my students are. It’s a good reminder that life is sweet!

Oh, and here’s a couple of my favorite Love Poems

Love is beautiful

Open for you

Valuable

Everlasting

Love is funny,

Love is sweet.

Love comes in and tickles my feet.

I love you, you love me.

We were meant to be.

Love is super gross.

I do not understand love.

Love is super weird.

It's All About Love

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about love. Not only because Valentines Day is just a few days a way, but because a lot of my friends have been going through break ups recently. When I started thinking about writing this blog it was going to be titled, “For Women Only!” I even looked up some men bashing quotes, but the more I thought about it I realized that guys aren’t the only ones at fault when it comes to failed relationships, women make mistakes too.  

We are bombarded with poor examples of love everyday. Think about it, you get in the car and turn on the radio, 9 times out of 10 you will hear a love song playing. Or it will at least be a song that has something to do with love, wanting love, bleeding love, breaking up, or making up. And TV and movies are even worse. They have tainted love and marriage so much, by making it seem “normal” to sleep around and down playing the sacredness of marriage.

No wonder we live in a world that’s hurting. We are looking to the wrong sources to show us what love is all about. My head has been spinning with these thoughts all day. Then I started thinking about real life examples that show a “true” love (my parents, grandparents, friends, and more).

This made me think of how blessed I’ve been with some great men in my life. So this Valentines Day I’m choosing to honor the 4 most important men in my life; my dad, my brothers, and Jesus.

First, I have been blessed with one of the best fathers a girl could ask for. Seriously, he loves me more than life itself and treats me like I’m the most special girl in the world. He has always told me I’m beautiful and that he loves me. My dad goes above and beyond to make me know how much he cares for me. I used to think that he just did that because he was my dad and I assumed all dads must treat their daughters this way. But I have realized within the past couple of years how rare his love actually is. My dad told me something about love once that I will never forget. He told me, “When I was dating your mom I would have done anything to see her or be with her. I would have driven as many miles as it took to see her. If a guys not willing to do that for you, he’s probably not the right one for you.” For the record, he is still that crazy about my mom. He thinks she is the most beautiful woman in the world and would do anything for her.

Next, my older brother Luke. I am so proud to call him my brother. He is a wonderful example of a loving husband and father. He is an awesome spiritual leader for his family and a great older brother. He told me once when I was going through a break up something along the lines of this, “Janae this is why it hurts so much, God didn’t intend for us to date lots of people. His plan was for us to be with one person forever. So when we give our hearts to people that aren’t in God’s will for us, its going to hurt.” He’s a pretty smart guy that brother of mine, and there is so much truth in what he told me that night.

Then there’s Logan the other “man” in my life. He is such a blessing to me and our whole family. God knew we needed him. He has the most tender and sincere heart of anyone I know. His advice to me on love, “Janae I think you should join an online dating service.”  He’s only 12 (almost 13) but he’s one of the smartest, most grounded kids around, but I’m still too scared to try online dating!

Lastly, Jesus. I know He’s my greatest love and my forever love. He is the one who will never leave me or forsake me. He will supply all my needs. I know this because I can see His work in my life. For example my job, I knew I wanted to teach but I didn’t know where, and he opened the door at Branson and I practically waltzed right in. He is constant and I will continue to trust Him.

So, instead of feeling alone or sad because I don’t have a “Valentine” I will celebrate this year full force and thank the men I do have. I know it’s totally a commercial driven holiday, but I love it! And I’m not going to be one of those lonely girls that pretends to hate it. Besides, I’d say I’m a pretty lucky girl, I have 4 valentines!

 



Snow Days = Fun Days

I've been very productive today on my second snow day of the week...and I just found out they've canceled school for the rest of the week!

I’m not going to lie, I love the snow days!  I know it’s going to stink when we’re going to school until JUNE, but I don’t get bored being at home for a few days. I find all kinds of things to keep me busy (other than the piles of school work I bring home to grade)! For example, yesterday I played Just Dance 2 all day long and cleaned. And today I made two collages. One for fashion ideas that I hung in my closet and one for beauty ideas that I put in my bathroom! (See pictures below)

If you find yourself getting a little stir crazy here are some of my person favorite things to do on a snow day:

-Clean
-Have a movie marathon day (its best of you pick a specific genre, like a dance movie marathon, or you can do a “link the actor marathon” – for example Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride to Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz in My Best Friends wedding to Cameron Diaz and Ashton K in What happens in Vegas…and so on! 
-Make something crafty
-Clean out and organize your closet - it may not sound super fun, but it feels so great after you’re done!
-Bake something!
-Read
-Journal
-Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and catch up
-Talk to friends on facebook chat
-Make hot chocolate for you’re neighbors that are outside playing or clearing off the sidewalks
-BLOG J

Stay safe and stay warm!