Hello all! I will not be posting a new dare this week for a couple reasons. The initial reason being that this is only a three day week for me. We have parent teacher conferences on Thursday all day and no school on Friday.
I have also felt like I need a little time to reflect on what it is that I'm wanting to happen by practicing the Love Dare on my students. I know for sure that I'm not doing a great job at all of the dares that I'm offering up every week. I have many moments of slip ups and sometimes feel slightly overwhelmed that I'm truly called to LOVE everyone... which includes each and every one one of my 65 students. Some days this feels like a daunting task.
So, this morning at church, God was softly reminding me of the reasons behind his calling for me to start the Love Dare journey....
I'm a little pressed for time at the moment, so I'm just going to hit the highlights of what was said this morning. If you care to listen to the entire sermon (which I highly suggest, our pastor does an amazing job of speaking the absolute truth of God's word, even over tough topics) you can go to www.freshwaterbolivar.com and podcasts from all of the sermons are under the media tab.
Ephesians 4
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.
- LEAD A LIFE WORTHY OF YOUR CALLING...
- HUMILITY-- The only way to not become prideful is to be completely focused on the gospel. And if you think you are being humble by not thinking highly of yourself (ie, bad self esteem, thinking you should/could be better at something) then you are still acting out of pride, only in reverse.
- The biggest problems in our relationships typically come from a root of pride. We think we deserve to be treated a certain way or deserve the best opportunities, when in reality, the only thing we DESERVE is Hell... everything else is just a blessing. So remember.... We are nothing, God is everything.
- GENTLENESS--- Which is humbleness acted out.
- PATIENCE--- take a look back at the first dare.
- BEARING WITH ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE--Bearing means we PUT UP WITH THEM.
- If you are avoiding those that have different personalities than you... the people that you really just have a hard time getting along with... so you don't have to deal with them... then you have some massive pride issues.
- When others see the way we treat each other they should step back and say "I can't believe it"
- The scripture says we are "eager to MAINTAIN unity" ... we already have the unity (as a body of Christ--because Christ is our ONE great Love), we don't have to build that unity... we just have to maintain it....
So our pastor's challenge to us this week was to revisit the gospel every day. Ask yourself, What has Christ done for me? And if I'm called to love as Christ has loved, then what can I do for others? Then repent and recommit.
I'm in the process of trying to wrap my mind around all of this. This particular passage was directed toward acting this way toward the body of believers... obviously not all of our students, coworkers, etc. fall into that category... but I know that we're still called to love them the same...
Anyway, I think this week, for me at least, needs to be a week of reflection.
I'm sure a lot of you are doing conferences this week. I will be praying those go well for you! And thanks to those of you who have committed to join me on this journey this year. It feels good to know I'm not in this alone.
God Bless!
So, I realize this isn't what this blog is about, but I figure teacher-teacher you all will understand :) I have a project up on donorschoose right now that really needs funding. If you donate before October 18 *tomorrow* the donation is matched... so if you give $5 the project will receive $10. Here's my site: http://www.donorschoose.org/mrsbarnoskie
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