Lilley of the field

I have nothing profound to say here tonight. Only that I am on to the sneaky middle schoolers who trick- or-treated last year and took all our candy we left out. So last year, Aaron and I weren't home on Halloween but it was our first Halloween in this cute neighbor and we wanted to be good neighbors so we set a bowl full of candy out, a little sign, and left the light on. We returned to find 1 piece left in the bowl. We wondered then.... did we have lots of kids come by or just one greedy bunch of middle schoolers? Well now I know! This halloween I bought not just one, but TWO bags of candy because I didn't want to run out. You know how many twirling princesses, stringy-haired, bad make-up witches, bright-eyed plump pumpkins, and over zealous bad-masked ghouls we had? Zero. That's right. Sad, lonely, quiet, plastic-pumpkin-still-full-and-untouched ZERO. And I actually feel sad. For some reason Halloween makes me nostalgic. My parents had this little rug thing that ha...

So we're celebrating "Disabilities Awareness Month" at my school this October. What that basically means is I had a dream about celebrating this at my school and my principal said to go for it. I want to write about it here so that people are encouraged, inspired, and dream. This type of thing may possibly be my favorite part about teaching and working with children. By "type of thing" I mean bridging the gap between special ed and general ed. I love people with special needs. I mean love. If I see them at the grocery store, I have to restrain myself from watching them and I usually try to say "hello," and interact briefly. What I love about people with disabilities is their ability to touch places of your heart that others can't. And yet, there's this stigma. People don't know how to interact with them. It's usually feelings of pity (they don't need it, I promise) or guilt or curiosity that are hinderances. They don't kno...

In the spirit of trying to simplify, I've pulled some books off the shelf that had a bit too many layers of dust and spines that were hardly broken. It was time for them to find a new home in the local thrift store. I pulled off one titled Battlefield of the Mind . There was a book study at FCA my freshman year of college and I tried to read it and get into it and I just couldn't. It's not that I actually disagreed with many of her points, I just- well I couldn't put my finger on it- but I couldn't get into it. Yesterday at church, we gathered together in small clusters and discussed a passage from Ephesians 4 about getting rid of your old self- anger, bitterness, rage- and being clothed with the new self- with His righteousness. We read verse after verse... Set your mind on things above... Whatever is noble, excellent, praise worthy... think about such things.... We even emphasized the grace of Christ. It's not that we are trying real hard to earn his lo...

Sometimes when people move out of Clemson, they often say that they can't find a church like dcf. They are looking, searching, praying, and it's tough to find such rich community. While I am sure that when/ if God calls us out of Clemson, we will say those same things, there's a part of me that says-  that sure would be nice to start over somewhere.  What would it be like to show up at someone else's home where someone else cleaned and made a home cooked meal and planned the discussion? What if we could decide that we didn't want to go to church one Sunday and instead go hiking in the mountains? What if we didn't have lengthy conversations about the direction of the church that seem to drain your energy? Sometimes we just see where we want to be and how we're not there. Or the energy we want to give, but don't have the ability to. The weight that wears on your shoulders as you pray for a group or an individual. The sadness or confusion or disappoin...