Last night I went to see the Movie "To Save a Life". Basically, it was the tell-tale story of a popular boy and an unpopular boy who were friends "once upon a time." When disaster strikes, the popular boy is left with a lot of questions of how he could have lived his life differently and begins to make strives to make a difference in the lives of others. All this week, I have been studying the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). I have spent each day reading the passage and then picking a person to reflect upon. My first day was on the robbers, second on the priest, third on the Levite then today, I thought I would focus on the Samaritan but something stopped me. After seeing the movie last night, it struck me this morning to question myself to see why I hadn't started with the guy that was robbed and left for dead. I don't know why I didn't, but it bothered me. I went to pull out our commentary to see what ol' Vernon McGee had to say about the traveler. He said that the traveler represented humanity. Humanity that found itself helpless, hopeless, and unable to save itself. Ultimately, the world today is like the man that fell among thieves and needs our help. The world needs Christ. A real, genuine Christ not a lofty, judgemental, harsh religion. If you look further, you see what the Samaritan did, he cleaned his wounds, he carried him on his donkey to the nearest town, paid for his room, found someone to care for him until his return. I am sorry, but that was way more than handing someone a track, telling a person down on their luck they need "Jesus", or inviting someone to church. It was involved, it was time-consuming, it was costly. Our Sunday School lessons for the past 6 weeks has been focusing on the greatest commandment "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind AND, Love your neighbor as yourself." I think we have to stop and ask ourselves a few questions:
1) Who are our "neighbors"?
2) Who am I best represented by in this parable: the traveler,
the robbers, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritian?
3) What/if anything, am I going to do about it?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
A New Year
Well, this crazy blog has made my break one of the few resolutions I made this year. I said I wouldn't go longer than a couple of days before posting and here it has been days and days. Sorry. However, I guess if this is the worst thing I do all year, I will be doing okay. Anyway, I am sitting in the parking lot at Owen's gymnastics place on my laptop in the car. If I can park close enough, I don't have to actually go in. Normally, I leave and run errands but his gym has called the dreaded "parent's meeting" to discuss how the meet season is going and the plans for the rest of the year.
January has been very busy so far. Ryan has gone back to tax season, Upward's has begun, meets are in full swing, Alexa's birthday, our anniversary, are just a few things we have been up to. Alexa's birthday was a great success "the best she has had in years" according to her. We let her have 3 other friends over for the night. We had a great time; we went to the movies, made pizza, made bracelets, had cake, opened presents. We gave her a guitar along with guitar lessons. She has had two lessons so far and has loved every minute of it. Her guitar teacher asked who she wanted to play like and of course, she responded "Elvis Presley" she said he sort of looked at her funny so she said "Taylor Swift". She left a little concerned that her guitar teacher may not know who Elvis Presley was. I have assured her that he did - he just wasn't expecting her to say that. In the meantime, she has been working on her lip curl! :)
January has been very busy so far. Ryan has gone back to tax season, Upward's has begun, meets are in full swing, Alexa's birthday, our anniversary, are just a few things we have been up to. Alexa's birthday was a great success "the best she has had in years" according to her. We let her have 3 other friends over for the night. We had a great time; we went to the movies, made pizza, made bracelets, had cake, opened presents. We gave her a guitar along with guitar lessons. She has had two lessons so far and has loved every minute of it. Her guitar teacher asked who she wanted to play like and of course, she responded "Elvis Presley" she said he sort of looked at her funny so she said "Taylor Swift". She left a little concerned that her guitar teacher may not know who Elvis Presley was. I have assured her that he did - he just wasn't expecting her to say that. In the meantime, she has been working on her lip curl! :)
Monday, January 4, 2010
Back to School
I had said awhile back that I was not going to use this blog as a whining forum. However, I have decided to make today an exception. First of all let me say, I love my life. I love my kids. I would not trade our experience for anyone else's and (most of the time) I love homeschooling. We actually took a break over Christmas. I mean a true, the school room could be full of spiders, break. It was just time. We break over summer but usually still have several projects and math looming over us. We do "mini-projects" or finish books that we had started during the school year. My kids have done "summer school" for most of their lives. This year (2009) has been draining. I cannot exactly put my finger on why - it could be the pressure of homeschooling a junior, it could be the pressure of the outside activities, it could be the pressure of finishing up getting that last one to read well, maybe I have just grown weary or lazy. Anyway, I decided to break over Christmas. I told the kids this and they gave me a "yeah right" look and waited for the famous "well, we are going to break everything but ...". It has been three glorious weeks. We played games, we ate dinner together, we watched movies, I read pleasure books, we got together with family and friends. It was a lovely time. I guess it was too lovely because now I REALLY don't want to start school tomorrow. In all of that fun, I really did nothing - no planning, no plotting, my calendar even still says December and I don't care! I should be in there moving it around, filling out their charts but instead I am blogging my whine. I knew that tomorrow would come and like I told my kids before bed "We just have to put on our big kid panties and deal with it!" And I will - tomorrow morning! I am going to go to bed praying for a better attitude. It will be great once we get going... but I can tell, it is going to be a painful start!
Friday, January 1, 2010
A New Year
I decided for a new year, I wanted a new look for my blog. Last night (or rather this morning) we were thinking back to our favorite things from 2009. I decided I would share some of them.
January - Alexa turned 8 - she had a princess tea party. She was not feeling well - it was a tough day. We went skiing for the very first time with our friends the Carrows and Huffmans. It was a lot of fun - Owen nearly gave me a heart attack on the slopes.
February - Just an ordinary month - Upward was still going on and Owen had tons of gymnastic meets. We endured February.
March - Owen turned 12. He had a couple of friends over to celebrate. We were pressed to get it in around Upward, gymnastics and Ryan's work schedule.
April - Owen made it to Regionals in gymnastics. Owen and I flew to Miami for him to compete. He came in 12th overall. Driving all over Miami in a rental car was an experience I will never forget. Tax season ended. We normally go on a trip but skiing counted as our trip - we just went before tax season started rather than when it ended. We decided we liked it better at the end.
May - Emily went to her first prom. She went with a couple of girl friends and had a great time. We finished our second year of Tapestry of Grace. We went on an impromptu trip to Williamsburg with friends. It was a great time. We hadn't been there for years. We did something different for the homeschool conference this year. I went with a few girl friends and stayed one night. I came home early and Ryan and I went camping. It was a lot of fun and made us feel 20 again.
June - Alexa, Ian and myself participated in VBS while Ryan, Emily and Owen did TaeKwonDo's sports camp. I taught the 5 year olds. Alexa and Ian didn't remember ever participating in VBS. It was a lot of fun and felt good to be back.
July - Alexa went to day camp at New Life Camp for the very first time. She went with two of her good friends. They had a great time. Ian had "Camp Fun Nemitz" at our house with friends. It was a lot of fun as well. However, now he is thinking we need to do that every year instead of him going to camp! Ryan, Emily and Owen went to Texas with Taekwondo on a missions trip. This was Owen's first missions trip. He did very well.
August - We went to Topsail Island for the week. It was a great time of relaxation with family and friends. School started back and there went August.
September - Emily turned 16. We had a big bash and then Emily, Ryan and myself went to New York. It was incredible. I don't think I would want to live there permanately but I don't think I would ever tire of visiting. We went to see Wicked. It was awesome. I never got to read a book in Central Park - that is on the list for next time. Ian turned 7. He had a Scooby Doo party. I am still in shock that he is a legal homeschooler - where did the time go?
October - I became an aunt for the 3rd time. I love it - I try very hard to be a good aunt. AnchorSoul was back at our church. This is one of Emily's all time favorite activities. She and Ryan did Sr. Anchorsoul and Alexa and I did Jr Anchorsoul.
November - came and went in a flash. Owen's meets started back up and Upward practice began again.
December - Ryan and I started December off with a mini-vacation. We went to Pilot Knob and stayed at a bed and breakfast there for two nights. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done which took a lot of pressure off of me. It was wonderful and I hope will become an annual event. My dad and Emily were in charge of the kids. It was nice knowing they were home. We celebrated a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends.
Looking back over our year of highlights we can see how truly blessed we are.
January - Alexa turned 8 - she had a princess tea party. She was not feeling well - it was a tough day. We went skiing for the very first time with our friends the Carrows and Huffmans. It was a lot of fun - Owen nearly gave me a heart attack on the slopes.
February - Just an ordinary month - Upward was still going on and Owen had tons of gymnastic meets. We endured February.
March - Owen turned 12. He had a couple of friends over to celebrate. We were pressed to get it in around Upward, gymnastics and Ryan's work schedule.
April - Owen made it to Regionals in gymnastics. Owen and I flew to Miami for him to compete. He came in 12th overall. Driving all over Miami in a rental car was an experience I will never forget. Tax season ended. We normally go on a trip but skiing counted as our trip - we just went before tax season started rather than when it ended. We decided we liked it better at the end.
May - Emily went to her first prom. She went with a couple of girl friends and had a great time. We finished our second year of Tapestry of Grace. We went on an impromptu trip to Williamsburg with friends. It was a great time. We hadn't been there for years. We did something different for the homeschool conference this year. I went with a few girl friends and stayed one night. I came home early and Ryan and I went camping. It was a lot of fun and made us feel 20 again.
June - Alexa, Ian and myself participated in VBS while Ryan, Emily and Owen did TaeKwonDo's sports camp. I taught the 5 year olds. Alexa and Ian didn't remember ever participating in VBS. It was a lot of fun and felt good to be back.
July - Alexa went to day camp at New Life Camp for the very first time. She went with two of her good friends. They had a great time. Ian had "Camp Fun Nemitz" at our house with friends. It was a lot of fun as well. However, now he is thinking we need to do that every year instead of him going to camp! Ryan, Emily and Owen went to Texas with Taekwondo on a missions trip. This was Owen's first missions trip. He did very well.
August - We went to Topsail Island for the week. It was a great time of relaxation with family and friends. School started back and there went August.
September - Emily turned 16. We had a big bash and then Emily, Ryan and myself went to New York. It was incredible. I don't think I would want to live there permanately but I don't think I would ever tire of visiting. We went to see Wicked. It was awesome. I never got to read a book in Central Park - that is on the list for next time. Ian turned 7. He had a Scooby Doo party. I am still in shock that he is a legal homeschooler - where did the time go?
October - I became an aunt for the 3rd time. I love it - I try very hard to be a good aunt. AnchorSoul was back at our church. This is one of Emily's all time favorite activities. She and Ryan did Sr. Anchorsoul and Alexa and I did Jr Anchorsoul.
November - came and went in a flash. Owen's meets started back up and Upward practice began again.
December - Ryan and I started December off with a mini-vacation. We went to Pilot Knob and stayed at a bed and breakfast there for two nights. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done which took a lot of pressure off of me. It was wonderful and I hope will become an annual event. My dad and Emily were in charge of the kids. It was nice knowing they were home. We celebrated a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends.
Looking back over our year of highlights we can see how truly blessed we are.
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