Snowdays



Remember when you were a kid and you dreamed of a snow day?  One day was good, a couple of days was even better!  A free day to sleep in, watch television, play in the snow...whatever you wanted to do.  Today is one of those days.  The wind is blowing like crazy, the snow is still coming down--sort of, and the schools are closed for miles and miles around.

I thought, when I was younger, that kids were the only ones who really appreciated the snow. The adults always looked so, I don't know, grumpy when it snowed.  After all, there is the shoveling and the snow blowing and the getting to work and all the regular stuff through the snow.  You never dreamt that there might be adults who wished for snow days too.

And then I became an adult, well in age at least.  In fact, I was the teacher in the classroom of the kids dreaming about a snow day.  And you know what?  I still dreamt of snow days.  Especially after Christmas when the winter doll drums kicked in and you just needed the world to stop for a little bit.  You didn't want too many snow days because that would prolong school, but just the number already included in the school calendar. 

So, why are snow days still so great?  After all, I'm an adult (we won't go through that again).  I can choose to take a day for myself any time I want.  It's a healthy thing to do...give yourself what I call a mental health day.  When my son was younger we would do that sometimes, just take a day in the middle of everything and stop the world.  We'd spend the day doing something that we hadn't done for a while.  It was wonderful and we would re-enter the regular routine the next day geared up and ready to face it all over again.

A dear friend and co-worker came to work on Monday.  Usually he bounces up the stairs and when he reaches the top just outside my office, he announces, "I'm here!"  There is a light in his eyes and you can see that he is ready for the day, the week, the year.  But on Monday, there was no bouncing and no light.  When I asked him if he felt well, he was surprised at my question and tried to assure me that all was well.  I assured him that it obviously was not and he let down his guard and said, "How did you know?"  He said it was really a lot of little things and it just felt like he was kind of dead inside.  He told me that when he has felt like that he usually would take a day to window-shop or just get away---a mental health day!  But he'd been out of the office quite a bit lately, on business, and he needed to be at work to catch up.

Well, God took care of that, and him, today.  Why is it that we tend to give so much of ourselves that we have nothing left?  Why can't we human beings understand that we are only good for others if we are good to ourselves first?  There comes a time we must stop and mend our minds and bodies so that we can continue the work that we do.  If we do not, we face dire consequences and stopping won't be a choice.  Our bodies will force us to stop and take notice. 

So, I'm going to take this day, stay inside and listen to the wind howl, snuggle up with my dog and ... I'm not sure what, but I know it will be the best snow day I've had (since the last one).

Yea!!!! No school, or anything else, today!!!

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 

What Life Is All About



Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about how many friends you have. Or how many people call you. Or how accepted or unaccepted you are. Not about if you have plans this weekend. Or if you're alone. It isn't about who you're dating, who you use to date, how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all. It isn't about who you have kissed. It's not about sex. It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have. Or what kind of car you drive. Or where you're sent to school.

It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are. Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what kind of music you listen to. It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, brown, or green. Or if your skin is too light or too dark.

It's not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everyone else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are. Or if this teacher likes you, or if this guy/girl likes you. Or what clubs you're in, or how good you are at "your" sport. It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you".

But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully. It's about keeping or betraying trust. It's about friendship, used as sanctity, or as a weapon. It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening. About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip. It's about what judgments you pass and why. And who your judgments are spread to.

It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention. It's about jealousy, fear, pain, ignorance, and revenge. It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could never occurred alone. Only you choose the way these hearts are affected and those choices are what life is all about.

Author Unknown

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely…

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:1, 7-14