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Monday, September 28, 2009

They Don't Have to Speak Your Language!!

Today, I wanted to be one of the Apostles during Pentecost. I wanted to speak and interpret foreign languages! But.......I'm not, and I can't. This proved to make my day complicated and difficult.

Today, I substituted in an ELL Kindergarten where these little buggers no se habla English. Seriously....they kept talking to me in Spanish and figured that I would eventually figure it out! Bless their little hearts, I know enough Spanish to get myself into trouble.........not much more.

Still, we all stumbled through our day. Between hand gestures, drawing pictures, a lot of pointing, and some good interpretation from a few children, we managed authentic communication. It just made for a REALLY long day. partially because they physically exhausted me. However, I was more mentally exhausted from trying to understand and be understood.

This whole process made me realize how much we actually don't communicate with those who are actually close to us. I thought about my husband today. I worked harder to express expectations to thirty little Kinders than I do my husband. We communicate through Post Its, email, texts, and voicemail. Then, we have the audacity to get angry with each other when we misinterpret an intended message. It's like face to face communication went out years ago when technology rolled humanity into this century.

The point being.....communication takes real effort. It takes work to formulate your ideas into language that is received by others correctly and this is only half of the communication equation. An individual still has to listen and interpret information that is sent back your way. Communication takes active participation. Think about it, how often do we really communicate??

It took some adorable five year olds to remind me that real effort on both parties is required to make our needs known. The nifty thing is that I get the opportunity to practice my skills again tomorrow! Now how cool is that? I get to practice authentic communication again.....try it.....it's a great way to learn about yourself and those you care about.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Life Goes on Without You

I do apologize to everyone for my extended absence from my blog, but I was stricken with illness the last week. I hadn't actually been feeling well for about a week and a half. By Tuesday of this week, I was completely down. I must admit that it has been quite a few years since I was stuck in bed.......I honestly didn't move a whole lot this past week.

I have been working as a Substitute and in various Children's ministry's at my church. It is inevitable that little ones with runny noses, coughs, and sneezes will eventually catch up to you. I figured that I just had a cold that turned into a sinus infection. By Wednesday, I knew it was the flu. I felt like someone had beat on me with a two by four, and I really couldn't get out of bed.

Mom's never actually get the option of being sick. I still had to have my son's meals prepared and get him up and ready for school everyday. That was about all I could accomplish as I never even made it to any stores or even out to the rabbit barn this week.

This amazing thing happened in spite of my illness..............Life went on without me!

Now, I must admit that I am somewhat guilty of thinking that my corner of the world will stop if something ever happened to me. I am learning that it won't. This lesson is a little painful in the ego department, but it's pretty darn practical in the end. All the times we stay up to finish a project knowing that life won't go on if we don't get it done.......is crazy thinking! The world will turn, birds will sing, and the sun will come up in spite of whatever we do. It's time to minimize our importance on what we do. The emphasis should be on who we love and how we have loved them.

God doesn't care how much we accomplish on our daily to do list. He cares about our relationships. Most especially, He cares about our relationship with Him. So........How much time have you spent with Him today?? He should always be the first thing on our "to do" list. I'm moving Him up to number one this week!
How about you?