My Teachers: Part 1

Sometimes in the mornings when I’m working through school books with Emry and Ethan I am reminded of my days in school. Having been in a public school from Kindergarten through 3^rdgrade and a private school in 4^thgrade, my earlier education looked different than my children’s as they plow through their daily work in Emry’s bedroom while Ellyson sees how much she can get into in the first three hours of her day. But there are other things that are not very different. After all, the alphabet hasn’t changed, and nor have the sounds of the letters. Numbers are the same no matter what you call “borrowing” when it comes to subtraction. And even though the world wants you to think so, pronouns haven’t changed either. They’ve just become much more vitally important than they were when I was memorizing them in 4^thgrade. But like myself, Emry doesn’t struggle with pronouns. We flew through those lessons!

 

Sometimes I think of my old teachers. Or of my old classrooms. Or of the kids I recall going to school with, because some were very memorable. I wasn’t the kid who got in trouble (although in 1^stgrade…well, Mrs. Steely didn’t let anything slip and I had disobeyed…), and nor did I find school especially exciting. I can’t say I found it boring, either, although I had teachers I preferred over others. Sometimes it’s hard to remember those days – it was over 35 years ago! – but other times I have very clear memories of some things. And they often make me laugh. Maybe because some of them are so very me…even though I hardly knew it when I was five.

 

Memories are things I often want to write down. I don’t know if my kids will care one way or the other one day (although Emry always loves to hear stories from when I was a girl), but I like to think they’ll find my memories interesting…albeit very old. So, I’m going to do a brief blogging series on my old teachers and classrooms. Those are pivotal days in one’s life, whether you care to acknowledge that fact or not. Especially 1^stgrade. First grade changed my life!

My Lack of Education

I remember when I was growing up my mom tried many of the things we were interested in. Granted most of the classes she took or particular things she learned related to Katey who was forever trying some new craft.  I remember feeling that was unfair and yet also admitting I didn’t have any interests she could participate in. (My constant scribbling seemed to leave her scratching her head, although she would have read things had I given them to her. Which I didn’t. I didn’t show anyone.) In return, she shared her love. I suffered through sewing one very awkward skirt. Somehow I ducked out of other similar pursuits. Probably because she was busy with other kids and I simply didn’t ask. Why? I had no interest.

 

But then the day came in my mid/late twenties when I arrived home from work or something on an afternoon when she would have various moms and their young daughters over for introductions to sewing, quilting, crocheting and similar projects. That day was crocheting and there were several little girls scattered throughout our living area with crochet needles and bright colors of yarn.

 

Being a little shorthanded as most mothers had more than one daughter or didn’t know how to crochet themselves and only a couple of my other sisters were present to help, she stopped me as I came through:

 

“Melissa, can you help Madison?”

 

“Mom, I don’t know how to crochet.”

 

“You don’t?” she asked in surprise.

 

I shook my head.

 

“Didn’t I teach you?”

 

Another shake of the head.

 

“How did I miss that?”

 

I think she felt she had failed as a mother. I didn’t find my education lacking in the least.

 

Until now.

 

One of our pastor’s eldest daughters has discovered knitting and crocheting. Over the winter, she was working on projects as if the world would soon run out of yarn. On more than one occasion, Emry was around as she was working on those projects. And on more than one occasion, Emry asked me if she could learn to knit. I responded that I don’t the first thing about knitting, but she could ask Grandma. Which she did. And just last night, Grandma brought her a pair of knitting needles and yarn, teaching her a basic stitch while I was at a meeting at church. And now?

 

Well, now I need to learn how to knit. Because Emry can’t remember the stitch exactly. And YouTube was no help. And I haven’t the slightest idea how to even hold the needles, let alone twist yarn around them.

 

Guess I didn’t miss out on learning how to knit after all.

My First Niece!

I have three nephews. Jay, who made me an aunt nine years ago. Curtis, Jay’s younger brother who is quite a character. And Benito, another character who is often unknowingly hilarious. I love each of them but unlike my siblings, I don’t have a niece. At least, I didn’t until today!

 

So, I’d like to introduce you to my new little niece born to my sister Grace and her husband in Kenya: Ezri Maua. Doesn’t she look like just the best niece ever?

My Favorite Verse

Several months ago a woman at our church texted me and asked for my favorite verse as she was making a collection of favorite verses. I thought for a moment and then sent it to her. She texted me back the following evening with a question I was half expecting: how did that become my favorite verse? Had I sent the correct reference? As I knew I had, I explained it to her in as great detail as one can in a text. It made sense to her then, and it got me to thinking. If that is my favorite verse, why do I sign my name with another one?

 

I added a verse to my signature over 25 years ago at a homeschool conference because that’s what everyone did. Somehow the kids who worked those conferences had taken to signing each other’s curriculum books. Like a homeschool version of the yearbooks we would never had. I noticed at the first conference I worked as that was becoming popular that almost everyone else included a Bible reference with their name. I knew by the next conference I needed one, too. So I chose Psalm 37:4. At the time it was a verse that meant a lot to me. But I always found it rather ironic that I added it under what could be called peer pressure…in at atmosphere when that was strongly discouraged.

 

After a while, it just became a habit. I still love Psalm 37:4, but over a decade later I would come across 2 Kings 6:6 during the lowest part of my life. If you reach for your Bible and look it up, yes, you will find it a very strange verse to find comfort in. But I had never felt more hopeless or helpless during that time, and the very fact that something that was impossible happened in 2 Kings 6:6 gave me the one foothold of hope I needed to keep going. It echoed in my head over and over during that period, and it has stayed with me ever since.

 

But, until a few months ago I don’t believe anyone has asked me my favorite verse since I was a teenager. And when asked, I immediately went to 2 Kings 6:6 which made me wonder why I still sign my name with Psalm 37:4. Habit? Because no one really looks at a signature anyway? Or maybe I just don’t want to explain? After months of thinking about it, though, I have decided I will change it. Even if no one looks at it. I do. And it’s a good reminder to me of my God who does impossible things.

This is such an amazing quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s sermon “Justification and Glorification” that I almost want to take the time to diagram it. I’d just have to purchase poster board. It’s a nearly 200-word sentence!

 

If I might very hastily divide this glory into its constituent elements, I think I should say it means perfect rest. “There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God”; life in its fullest sense; life with emphasis; eternal life; nearness to God; closeness to the divine heart; a sense of his love shed abroad in all its fulness; likeness to Christ; fulness of communion with him; abundance of the Spirit of God, being filled with all the fulness of God; an excess of joy; a perpetual influx of delight; perfection of holiness; no stain nor thought of sin; perfect submission to the divine will; a delight and acquiescence in, and conformity to that will; absorption as it were into God, the creature still the creature, but filled with the Creator to the brim; serenity caused by a sense of safety; continuance of heavenly service; an intense satisfaction in serving God day and night; bliss in the company of perfect spirits and glorified angels; delight in the retrospect of the past, delight in the enjoyment of the present, and in the prospect of the future; something ever new and evermore the same; a delightful variety of satisfaction, and a heavenly sameness of delight; clear knowledge; absence of all clouds; ripeness of understanding; excellence of judgment; and, above all, an intense vigour of heart, and our whole heart set upon him whom our eye shall see to be altogether lovely!