Fasting and Thanksgiving. What??

I know what you're thinking...what does fasting and Thanksgiving have to do with each other? Isn't that an oxymoron? Believe it or not, back in colonial times, they actually went hand in hand. Those of you who hated History in school might want to move on to some other mindless activity right now...

While the commonly known feast that took place in 1621 is often referred to as the first Thanksgiving, the colonists of Plymouth didn't begin observing it on a regular basis until several years later and even then, it was not at a set time each year. It was one of three holy days that they participated in: the Sabbath, the Day of Humiliation and Fasting, and the Day of Thanksgiving and Praise, the latter two only being held for special circumstances whenever they felt their situation warranted it. It wasn't until the 1700's that these two days settled into a cycle with Fast Day in the Spring and Thanksgiving Day in the fall and were observed on an annual basis.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday of November the official Thanksgiving Day and the original holiday set up by the colonists many years earlier was absorbed into this national celebration. And by the way, Mr. Lincoln was convinced to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday by a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, who had spent 40 years lobbying congressmen, presidents, and newspaper editors to create this national day of thanks. (She also is the one responsible for the words to "Mary Had a Little Lamb.")

Again, I know what you're thinking...so what?? Well, besides having some great trivia you can impress your family with during this year's Thanksgiving dinner, this information made me stop and think about those early years of our country. Throughout the incredible hardships they endured, one thing remained constant--their faith in God. When things were bad, they humbled themselves and prayed. When things were good, they praised and thanked Him for his kindness. Never did they assume a "poor me" attitude or blame someone else for their plight. Their automatic reaction was to go to God, no matter what.

In the "not my fault" society we live in, this seems foreign to some and downright wrong to others. Those faithful colonists were instrumental in creating the great country we live in. Okay, so I'm not suggesting that we all fast this Thanksgiving instead of piggying out on turkey and pumpkin pie but maybe we should take a lesson from our ancestors and adopt their philosophy of humility and thanksgiving. Imagine what we could do!

What's Your Job Description?

Recently I was required to look at and evaluate my official job description and I have to be honest, it overwhelmed me somewhat. When faced with the tasks I am expected to perform, the enormity and importance of it all hit me. It's not that I don't do it all but looking at it in its entirety really made me stop and consider just how well I was doing in each of those areas. And as the significance began to build, so did my fear and insecurity. What if I dropped the ball on just one of those responsibilities? What repercussions would be felt by the teachers, students, and parents placed under my authority if I make just one decision that is not the best? What if I allow myself just once to react instead of respond? What if, what if, what if.....

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

What more do I need to answer those "what if" questions than this verse? Knowing that I am human and am prone to make mistakes, I realized the most important part of my job description was not even written on those school policy pages. The task I need to focus on actually has very little to do with what I get a paycheck for doing. Or maybe it has everything to do with it...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

Nothing short of my full devotion to the Savior of my soul can guarantee my success in my job or in my life. And if there are any of my duties I simply can't afford to neglect, that would be it. The truth is that if I get that part right, everything else will fall in place. Praise the Lord that I don't have to worry about having all the right answers or making all the right decisions.

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:6
AMEN!

Where is your desire?

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of being involved in a baptismal service which included a very special six year old who calls me Nana Sharon. Although he may not have my DNA, in every way that counts, I AM his Nana and this very special relationship with him and his brother means more to me than I can tell you.

After the service, my husband and I were talking about the fact that when we have gone on mission trips with college students, there has been a significant amount of young people who have been re-baptized on these trips stating that they did it when they were a child but didn't really know what it meant. Most of the 26 people baptized last Sunday were around the ages of five or six and we discussed the level of understanding these precious babies would have about this decision. Here was our conclusion and why.

A number of years ago, our daughter, who is mentally challenged, began to talk about being baptized. Understand that she is on about a two year old mental level and communicates mostly with one or two word sentences so when she started saying "my turn" and "'-tize", we pretty much treated it as just another one of her obsessions. We ignored it for about two years until she began to get almost frantic about it. She would stand in front of the baptistry after church services, point and say, "my turn." The pastor finally came to us and suggested that we go ahead and allow her to be baptized. He convinced us that in whatever capacity she was able to understand, she had the desire to do something that she saw as important. We agreed and have never regretted the decision.

I told that story to explain why I feel that desire is one of the most important components in our Christian walk. Does a young child fully understand what it means to ask Jesus to be Lord of their life? Probably not but then neither do I sometimes. Do they have a legitimate desire to live fully for Christ? I believe that to be absolutely true. Nobody is perfect but if we sincerely desire to be Christ-like, I truly believe God will honor our efforts, no matter how young, old or mentally capable we are.

So the question is: Where is your desire? Do you desire to be the best you can be for your Savior? Then take comfort in knowing that God will take our desires and turn them in to something wonderful.

The Best Kept Secret

Okay everybody, I'm going to let you in on the best kept secret of New Covenant Academy. Come closer so I can whisper it in your ear...are you ready? It's called...car line.

Yes, now my secret is out and I'm sure there will be a stampede to come and help me! But in case you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, let me enlighten you. It is my distinct privilege to stand in the driveway each morning and help children out of their cars and into the school building. And let me just tell you, it is the highlight of my day!

To see those smiling faces come bounding out of their cars, shouting greetings to their friends, then go running into the building, is the greatest way to start your day. There is something so inspiring to see such innocent joy. Granted, my cheerful "Good Morning" is not always met with equally cheerful responses but some are just not morning people and that doesn't deter me one bit.

Somehow all is well with the world when I can see these sweet faces so excited about what the day has to bring. It reminds me of two Bible verses:

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Luke 18:17
"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Can you think of a better reminder on the proper way to approach your day? That's why I find this particular duty such a delight. Well, except on rainy and cold days. Then there are other verses that come to mind...but that's for another day!

"Be Not Afraid"

As some of you may know, we just added a new member to our family--a mixed breed dog named Jayda who we adopted from a shelter and is afraid of EVERYTHING. Hissing cats, barking dogs, crunching leaves, moving shadows--you name it, she's afraid of it! Just about the time she was starting to relax with us, something happened that set her back several days but had us laughing so hard at the impossibility of ever recreating the events that occurred.

While my husband and Jayda were walking in front of our neighbor's house, a squirrel climbed up the down spout and ran across the roof right above where they were walking. The squirrel had a big green tomato in its mouth and just when it was parallel with our dog, the tomato slipped from its mouth and went careening down the roof where it bounced off the gutter and landed square on Jayda's head causing her to jump, yelp, and take off running. My husband thought it was so funny, he called everyone in the family to tell us the story! Jayda was not so amused.

Isn't that just the way it is with life sometimes? Just when we think we've got it made and start strutting confidently along, somebody beans us in the head with something that sends us scurrying back to a place we think is safe where no one can hurt us. And if we would take our cue from my new dog, we would stay in that safe place for an extended period of time, not taking a chance that something else might cause us to be frightened.

Fear is mentioned in the Bible 326 times, almost one for every day of the year. God knew that being afraid would be our own worst enemy and chose to address it so many times, in so many ways. Over and over again he says, "Be not afraid." So where do you think Satan will attack us the hardest? Where our greatest fears are, of course. Some think the answer is to never put ourselves in a situation that Satan might be able to use. My answer is just the opposite and I don't say this because I am such a courageous person. I say this because I have learned over the years that serving the Lord will bring me so much farther than cowering from Satan's possible attacks. I have learned that you don't deny the problem; you deny its authority over you. Ambrose Redmond says, "Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that there is something more important than fear."

So get out there and serve the Lord...but watch out for squirrels with tomatoes!

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7

The Joseph Principle

Ever had one of those weeks where the lows were REALLY low and the highs were REALLY high and it left you wanting to ask the operator of this ride called life to just stop so you can get off? That would be a picture perfect description of the past week for me but as is often the case with the Lord, I have been blessed with new insights about myself and life in general and can't keep them to myself. So here goes...

Not surprisingly, just about the time I was beginning to feel sorry for myself for having to deal with the trials God had chosen to allow into my life, I sat down to do my devotions and guess what the topic was? Joseph. Wouldn't you know He would place before me the textbook case of unfairness just when I was drowning in my own self-pity? Although I have read this story hundreds of times over the years, I began to look at it in a slightly different light.

It hit me that if Joseph had known how great his contribution would be to his family and to the whole of Egypt, he would have gladly endured all the hardships, knowing there would be a tremendous pay off in the end. Then it occurred to me that Joseph made the best of his situation even without knowing exactly what the pay off would be. And that is precisely what God wants from me also.

He promised me in Romans 8:28 that He would work all things out to the good and I had, in fact, seen that very promise carried out a few short weeks ago when we were vandalized so why was this such a revelation for me?? If I lived every day the way Joseph did, I would meet every challenge with the attitude that  my momentary suffering could be a vessel for eternal blessings. How differently would I look at things with this shift in focus? I would not think twice about experiencing hardship if I knew my own child would reap the benefit at a later date. The truth is I am short sighted and human and need to be reminded often that my view of life is limited.

I'm sure there will be more weeks where life will be a roller coaster ride but next time,I'm going to try to apply what I have now begun to refer to as the "Joseph Principle," a more God-focused view of the things He allows in my life that can and will have eternal repercussions. Way to go, Joseph!

Christianity and Teabags

I know what you're thinking...what do teabags have to do with Christianity? My mind has a tendency to take journeys sometimes and occasionally the journey turns out to be one that actually leads somewhere! I am inviting you along on one particular trip that I took recently.

Every morning while I do my devotions, I make myself a cup of hot tea. And every morning I keep the teabag in the cup until it gets to the strength I want my tea to be. The other morning, as I watched the tea swirl around and darken the water, it occurred to me that Christianity is alot like that teabag. The minute it hits the water, it begins to change everything around it. And the hotter the water, the faster it changes.

As Christians, we have the ability to change everyone and everything around us. How we respond to challenges, how we deal with others, how we react to life's little annoyances, all affects those around us. And it seems that the hotter the issue, the faster we see things change, either for the better or for the worse. If I respond to someone in a grumpy way, the chances are extremely good that I will get grumpiness right back. And the thing about a teabag is that once it has changed the water, it can never go back to being a cup of plain water. So it is with our responses. Once we've let the negative out of our mouths, it can't be put back in, no matter how many times we say we are sorry or how badly we feel about saying it in the first place. 

On the flip side of that, when we do something kind for someone, give out some encouraging words, take a little extra time to help someone, there is a ripple affect that can end up affecting everyone around us. As I watched my cup of hot water slowly turn to a deep shade of brown, I was reminded that I have the choice every day to change my own little piece of the world. And I have the choice to make changes that will allow others to see Jesus in me or not.

Tea anyone?

To rearrange or not to rearrange

I hate it when they rearrange things at Walmart. I just get used to where things are and they completely change everything. I’m sure there is some marketing strategy to justify this but it drives me crazy. We are creatures of habit and when we are forced to deal with changes that we see as unnecessary, it messes with us.

I recently came across a quote that made me reconsider my aversion to rearranging. Lysa Terkeurst says, “God is close and if I choose to be close back, He will rearrange my feelings.” Webster's defines rearrange as, "to alter, adjust or change." So I rearrange my closet, my furniture, the contents of my refrigerator, and my chest of drawers but my feelings? Hmmmm.

Why do I rearrange all those things in my house? To get rid of the old to make room for the new, to change the look or perspective, to make it easier to access things. Why would I want to rearrange my feelings? To get rid of the junk to make room for the holy, to change my perspective, and to make it easier to think about the things God would want me to dwell on.

Okay, it’s beginning to make sense to me now. Ruts are good when you want to stay on the same path but if you want to move to a higher road, you’ve got to force yourself out of the rut. Rearranging things keeps me from getting bored and forces me to change to a new kind of “normal.” Getting closer to God forces me to look at things in a different way, using different standards and different “normals.” John 15:19 says, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

Alright, so next time they rearrange things at Walmart, I won’t spend the whole time whining about the fact that I can’t find anything. Instead, I’ll remind myself about how getting closer to God can change my perspective and rearrange my feelings…and maybe whine just a little.

Bad to Good

Monday of last week was a day of roller coaster emotions. It began very early in the morning when I received a phone call from an employee informing me of vandalism that had been perpetrated on the outside of the building over the weekend. Although I was disturbed by this news, I was in no way prepared for the gut wrenching disgust I would experience as I pulled in the driveway and saw the vile words and repulsive pictures spray painted on about three quarters of the outside walls, windows, and doors of our beautiful building.

I was on the phone with my husband as I caught the first glimpse and the obvious change in my voice alerted him to the serious nature of the vandalism without me even telling him what was written. He immediately hung up and called our church where he knew a crew of people were preparing breakfast for the Parkview High School teachers who were coming back to work that day. They promptly committed to collecting the necessary equipment and supplies to clean it off and within an hour were at the school scraping, scrubbing, and power washing in what was later to become an extremely hot day.

Teachers, administrators, and parents jumped in and covered the worst of the words and pictures with paper before the children got to school so they did not have to be exposed to it. Several whole families pitched in, got paint and supplies, and spent the day repainting places that couldn't be scrubbed off. By 6:00 that evening, every trace of this blaspheme was erased.

As I reflect on that stressful day, I am able to see Romans 8:28 come to life. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." While getting students out of the cars that morning, I was told by several of them that they were going to pray for whoever had done it. I was told by the employee who discovered it that a high school student was the one who alerted her and he was deeply affected by this act. I was told by teachers of conversations they overheard among students who were disgusted and disturbed by this event. I was told about discussions that went on in classes that indicated attitudes and feelings of righteous anger as well as a new pride in their school.

The lessons learned from this experience cannot be taken from a book. No Bible lesson we could have planned could have made as big an impact as seeing first hand what a life separated from God will cause you to do and say. No chapel service could have inspired as much unity. No lecture could have caused as much grief. Thank you Jesus for taking something intended to be so hurtful and turning it into something so glorifying!

"Peace I leave with you..."

About the last word I would use to describe the first day of school is peaceful but that's exactly what I have chosen to address in this, my first blog of the official beginning of school. Here's a peek into what went on that first day...

There were teachers going over last minute preparations one more time; parents turning in forms, checks, orders, and medication to the office; children bounding ahead of parents as they headed to their classrooms; children experiencing new class anxiety clinging to their parents; old friends greeting old friends and new friends meeting soon-to-be old friends; cameras flashing; a few teary faces, some from students but most from parents.

Surprisingly though, after experiencing this organized chaos for about 30 minutes, there was a hush that settled over the building as parents made their way back to the parking lot and teachers began to establish routines. As I stepped in to each class to make sure all was well, there was definitely a peace that came over me. Everyone was in their places, things were running smoothly, and children were busily accomplishing whatever task they had been given. This was right, this was good, this was school. And all was well with my soul.

The word peace is mentioned 247 times in the Bible which makes me think that God knew that obtaining this sometimes elusive state of being would be difficult for us humans to accomplish. Verse after verse tells us how important it is for us to seek a peaceful lifestyle. One that I ran across during a recent Bible study is Hebrews 12:14: "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord."  In these few words, we are called to pursue peace, not just sit around and wait for it to happen. And if we don't, we will not see the Lord. Ouch!

So how do we pursue peace? Matthew Henry says that "pride and passion break the peace. Humility and meekness restore peace." He goes on to state that "the bond of peace is the strength of society." Pretty strong words, huh? But think about it...what causes most conflicts in the world and in our lives? Lack of peaceful relationships. What can restore peace? Someone practicing humility and meekness no matter the wrong or injustice. Let's face it, as Christians we are called to be different from everyone else in the world. Jesus himself said it in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."


Here's my resolution then for this school year; to pursue peace by practicing humility and meekness in my thoughts and my actions. I give you permission to hold me accountable. Won't you join me?

New Beginnings

There's something so invigorating about starting something new. Scary, but invigorating nonetheless. The beginning of a new school year is no different. As I contemplate what lies ahead, I get so excited as I think about the growth in the students that we will see, both academically and spiritually. I look forward to chapel services where young voices will sing praises in the purest form of worship and the Spirit of the Lord will be tangible. The prospect of starting fresh and leaving behind the past is bittersweet but exhilarating at the same time.

Unfortunately, there is also a little sense of dread as I realize that no year can be without its trials and difficulties. There will be families who will experience tough times and my heart will ache for them. There will be conflicts and disagreements and my heart will long for peace and healing.

As I as sit here at my computer in the darkness, (it's the wee hours of the morning because I can't sleep due to a hundred things running through my brain!) I am reminded that the Creator of peace, joy, and harmony is but a prayer away. His words can and should be my ever present comfort. 1 Corinthians 15: 57-58 stares at me from an index card taped to my monitor:
     "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

God does not promise us a life without suffering or pain but He does promise that our "toiling" will not be in vain. I chose to cling to His promises and be steadfast and immovable today. How about you?

Welcome to my blog!

When I began my career in education, a "blog" was something you might see in a bad horror movie that would come out of the lake to devour everything in its path! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the day when I would be able to share my thoughts with hundreds (thousands?) of people with the touch of an "Enter" key. Maybe that's good and maybe that's bad but it definitely is a part of the world we live in now.

I can't guarantee how often I will update this blog but my goal is to share something from my heart on a weekly basis. Right now my heart is racing as I think of all the things that need to get done before we hear the trample of little feet coming down the halls as another school year begins. I love seeing their smiling faces as they climb out of the cars in the mornings and being able to greet each one reminds me daily why God has placed me at New Covenant Academy.

I can't begin to tell you how grateful we are that parents have placed their precious children in our hands to partner with  in guiding and directing their lives. My prayer every morning is to be found worthy of that trust. I can't wait to see what this year will hold!

In His Love and Service,
Mrs. Pruett