A little compliment goes a long way

Even though this may sound a little cliché, I think it is something important that we all should remember. The smallest things that we don't consider significant, could really mean something to someone else. Before I started my night tonight with my Life-groups, Jay Strother popped his head in to say hi to me and my group. He was telling my group how funny it was that I was in his Life-group in that very room and now I am leading one. Even though he is our Emerging Generations pastor now, it's nice to know that he still has fond memories of our lifegroup in High School and he still cares about us.

That's what I wanted to leave my Life-group with tonight. I remember when Jay would play games like "Spin the Pen" (that's when you spin a pen and when the pen stops, you say compliments or words of encouragement to whomever it's pointing to) or just take time to tell us that we were special and made for a purpose. I think I can speak for all of my friends when I say that experience lifted us all up and made us stand a little taller. I hoped that's what I could do tonight with my group.

I just Hope that as they went home tonight, they will realize that God loves them and that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. I don't care if that is the only thing they learn from me. If they can grasp that concept, I think that is one of the most important things to remember.


P.S. I am going to St. John and will post a list of all the people going and how you can pray for us! Also if you want to donate money to the "Send Scott to St. John" campaign, be sure to let me know!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

This post today is dedicated to my mother! You see that handsome little baby on the right? That is yours truly! Way back in 1980s. That was during my "I'm too cool for hair" phase. That phase ended when I was a little older than two. Since then I have had a head full of hair.

What can I say about my mom? Thank you mom for being you! Thank you for showing me what it means to serve. You not only serve in the church, but at work and in your personal life as well. Thank for you smiling, listening to Sarah and I when we've had a tough day, and for laughing at all my jokes...regardless of how stupid or pointless they are.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!


P.S. This is really random, but Sarah (my sister's) blog/thing she updates with is

http://twitter.com/blueserenade

Revelation!

I usually look forward to Wednesday Nights because I enjoy hanging out with my 7th grade guys and helping guide them through biblical truths. Since this past Saturday, I have been especially looking forward to going to Lifegroups because I was teaching about Revelation...and I had a crazy vision of how to do it!

First off, I have never been a big fan of teaching from Revelation. For one I found it kind of confusing, two I felt like it wouldn't really matter since I am a Christian and won't be left behind, and three because I felt like there were more important things to focus on. Yet, they wanted to hear about it. So I decided to do three main parts; The Seven Seals, The Trumpet Judgments, and God's Bowl Judgment. There is nothing like God's Wrath, plague, and death to get a 12-13 year old guy interested! (Or really any guy for that matter)

The idea came to me of, "What if I actually made scrolls?" Then from that came the idea of, "What if we acted it out? Like we were in the End Times?!?" So then the idea came to me to do a Drama Adventure Lesson Plan. Basically this is where you have a theme and then the students learn from acting it out. They don't have lines or scripts, they just develop characters and act as characters in the drama presented. So tonight I was "Father John" and they were all people who were left behind and wanted answers on what was going to happen.

They laughed at me for the first couple of minutes. I was in a choir robe because I wanted to make it authentic. Then once I really started getting into it and urged them to play along, they became really interested! They were on the edge of their seat when I talked about God's judgments, the death of mankind, the power of the end times, etc. I got really into character and I urged them to come to Christ and to tell others so they wouldn't have to face the wrath of God! One of the kids in my group said that, "This is scary!"

This was one of the first if not the first time that my guys came up to me afterwards and said, "That was a great lesson!" I have to say though in all modesty, that this lesson took a lot of prayer. I was praying to God to speak through me and through all the guys in that room. I prayed that he would make the atmosphere seem so real that it was like we were in the end times. I prayed for strength, courage, and knowledge. I recited things tonight that I read in books from years and years ago! God helped me speak to these guys tonight, and he deserves all the glory.

It's interesting how God can use anything. I learned about how to do a Drama Adventure Lesson Plan in Child Drama at MTSU. The Left Behind Series was the first series I read all the way though, and I used that as an example. I used yarn that I took from my Experimental Science Class to make the scrolls. I used my locked box that I got for my Senior Graduation present to use as the Trumpet Judgments. I used my mother's choir robe to act as an associate pastor of a church. Crazy, isn't it?!?

I was so filled with adrenaline tonight. I also saw the possibilities of what can be accomplished in ministry if you pray and let God work through you. It's an amazing experience.

To quote the great song:

"To God be the glory, to God be the glory,
To God be the glory, for the things He has done.
With His blood He has saved me
With His power He has raised me
To God be the glory, for the things He has done"

I'm done! (Kind of)

I am officially done with classes! Well...at least with the physical part of going to classes. I have one exam next Wednesday in First Aid. It's a comprehensive test over 26 or so chapters, so it is kind of scary. I also need to make a 80% or higher on this test in order to be certified. I should be okay, but it will just mean I need to study these next couple of days. For Mr. I like to procrastinate, that will be kind of tough. I also need to turn in a couple of things to my Experimental Physical Science professor too, so that will also take some time. In my mind, I am not done until I see all grades submitted by my professors. The good news is that I know I have 2 A's in at least four of my classes! Awesome stuff.

I was thinking today about an out there kind of question. If you could spend time with anyone (future, past, alive, dead, etc.) who and where would it be? I decided that if it was with a girl, I would pick Amanda Bynes. She seems very down to earth and has a great sense of humor. I think it would be fun to just go to a baseball game or something with her. If it was a guy, I would choose to be a silent member during the 1930s-1949 literary group the Inklings (which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien). I would just like to sit there and hear the kind of discussions that came from the group. I think that would be very cool.

If I could be part of any event, it would still be the unveiling of "Rhapsody in Blue" with Paul Whiteman. A concert featuring the Beatles or Elvis would come in close second. Well, that's about all that's going on. I hope everyone reading this has a great day!

Update for Spring 2008

It has come to my attention that I really don't update this blog very much. There has been a lot of stuff going on, and I haven't really been talking about it. Hopefully this will clear some things up on what's going on.

First off, things are going really well with my church. I'm enjoying the time I spend with my 7th grade Life-group on Wednesday nights. We just got done with a study we did correlating with the book, "Don't waste your life" by John Piper. Next Wednesday we will be on week three of our three week study on Jonah. I was really excited about this study and I still am. We're going to be talking about the last chapter, so it should be exciting. Other than that, the College Ministry is growing like crazy. I have been going to the College Life-groups on Thursday nights and that has been a lot of fun. It's good to just be in a small group and discuss things whether they be spiritual or just things that are going on in your life. The only sad part is I missed all my friends at the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) this semester. Hopefully I can do more with them next semester.

School is going...okay. I am going to have to go an extra semester because I am 7 hours behind where I should be. My parents are okay with it, so I will just continue to do the best I can. I have enjoyed my classes this semester. I'll even end it with being trained in Coordinated School Health and First Aid and Safety! I also got to work with first graders in a reading group and teach some this semester. I'm going to miss the friendships I formed. I hope I see them in the future whether it be classes or as my colleagues. The only down part to this semester was I had a huge amount of projects and I still have some due before my final week of classes (which is this next week). So let's hope that I don't die of stress overload!

Things are going well personally. I have accepted the fact that I am naturally introverted but can push myself to be more extroverted. I feel that this is a good thing, but people can take this the wrong way. The only real bad part is I tend to internalize everything which means I am in my own little world most of the time. Trust me, no one wants to get out of it more than me sometimes :-).

I am also single again. I don't want to go into a lot of details about it. I just felt like it was the right decision and I think that since then it has really made both of us focus more on different things that we weren't as focused on before.

I hope that gives you a peek into what's going on. If you want to know anything else, let me know. I'll try to keep this updated. Have a great rest of the day!

Spring, Spring, Spring!

"Oh, the barnyard is busy in a regular tizzy, and the obvious reason is because of the season. Ma Nature's lyrical, with her yearly miracle Spring, Spring, Spring."

I have had this song stuck in my head all day. It's from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was a musical that was made in 1954. If any of you haven't seen it, it's pretty good. My favorite song is actually, "Bless your Beautiful Hide." He's looking for a bride and he is mentioning all the stuff he wants in a woman. He finally finds a woman that is, "Pretty and trim but not too slim. Heavenly eyes and just the right size
Simple and sweet, and sassy as can be!"

On the topic of musicals, Choir and being part of the Musicals are two things that I definitely miss about High School. In fact, I had a dream last night that I was singing in the Quartet for Mozart's Requiem that we did my Junior Year.

Well, I guess I should be going. Only two more weeks than my semester is done! Crazy, isn't it?

Education and Prayer

Have you ever had one of those times when you got an obvious answer to prayer? That happened to me today. Brentwood Baptist Church is having construction done to build the new Discipleship Connection Center which will be a place to help students both spiritually and academically. The intention is to reach out to the community and let students/parents know there is a place where they can get help in any capacity. God may have even bigger plans than that, but we're just taking it one step at a time.

The prayer ministry of our church has arranged this week and next week as a time to partake in a "Starbucks Prayer Tour" where a small group of people meet at Starbucks and then go to various schools to pray for the faculty, students, and the various issues that they face (mentally, physically, socially, spiritually, etc). I was able to go to the one today.

I am an Elementary Education Major, so school-aged kids and the education system have always been part of my heart. Lately, I have really been questioning what I should do. We prayed for schools, the teachers, the students, and all that they were facing. We then discussed the prospect of Christian teachers and Male teachers for the lower grades...and about how we needed them to be planted in our school systems. Students spent more time in schools than they do a lot in churches or even their own homes.

During one of these stops at the High School I graduated from (Brentwood High) and one that a lot of the kids in my Lifegroup go to (Brentwood Middle), a couple of the adults I was with started to pray for me! It was very encouraging and uplifting, and it really made me proud of what I am doing in College and what I may plan to do in the near future. This gave me encouragement to know that when I go into that field, there will be people praying for me. I don't have to do it alone. What a great answer to prayer!

Our Educational system is a HUGE mission field. It is good to take time out of our schedules to remember this and set aside some time to pray for the faculty, students, and all the issues they face.

If you would like to pray for our public schools, here is a link you can go to to help guide your prayer. It is in a PDF format and you can print it out.

http://www.navpress.com/Assets/PDF/Product/Sample/9781576839010.pdf

Abide with me

I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago. It's a very good book. There is some foul language and sexual themes in parts of it, but it's not overbearing.

It is set in the late 1950s in a small New England town. It tells the story of Reverend Tyler Caskey and his job, family, community, etc. He is a widowed father of two girls, and throughout the book you get to see a little bit of what his relationship was like with his wife. His eldest Katherine, is having some emotional problems and that leads to the community questioning his ability as a father, pastor, and so forth. They see a different man than they did before his wife's death.

The cool thing about this book is that if you have ever been a member of a church, you understand a little bit about "church gossip" and a little bit of what he is going through. You also get to see the responsibilities and burdens a pastor has to deal with on top of their personal life, which is not always their personal life.

The main theme that I got out of this book was the fact that all of us no matter if we are a member, pastor, visitor, etc. of a congregation, we all still are all sinners. The great part is that the community of believers can help each other along the way just as this community ends up doing.

P.S. This book also reminded me to pray for my pastor. If you are involved in a local church, please pray for your pastor.

Anvil and Spring Break

First off I know that it is weird to have a spring break when it is not even spring yet, but you just have to go with the flow as far as that is concerned.

I want to talk about Anvil. Anvil was the weekend retreat the guys from our youth group (grades 6-12) took last week. We went to Camp Linden and we participated in a variety of things; a meat fest where we ate such meats as Kangaroo, Ostrich, Black Bear, Rabbit, etc., a time of togetherness where we smashed various objects ( i.e. mayo packets, melons, and cat food with a wooden mallet), and a relay race. All of this was topped off with our bible study and worship related to the topic of courage. Although when I asked my guys what they thought of Anvil, only a couple of them could even remember what we talked about.

Spring Break is pretty good so far. I have to go back to class on Monday, so I'm kinda sad. Break went by really fast! I got to visit Sarah for several days. It was kind of funny because out of the three days I was there, school got called off for two of them! It was even called off today, so I was either bringing the kids of Selmer, TN good luck, or Sarah and other teachers a difficult time. Who knows?!? We had fun though. We played card games, games on the computer, watched movies, made/ate some rice balls, went to Corinth, it was a good time. Fun to hang out with the sister!

Now, I am just trying to enjoy the rest of my break. Maybe watch a couple of movies, read, or just do nothing. Regardless, it should be fun.

Love quotes from Kids

Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.

Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs

Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.

When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.

Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way.

School and Commuting

I wanted to give an update on how things are going right now.

I'm taking four classes this semester. They are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8-5 except on Friday where it is 8-12:30. I am taking Language and Literacy, the After School Health Program, First Aid and CPR, and Experimental Physical Science. They are all pretty fun classes. My hardest one is definitely going to be the Physical Science class. The others should be okay as long as I stay focused. It's easy to get distracted.

I'm also commuting this semester. It's kind of funny. People are asking me, "How do you like Commuting?" I actually have no problem with it. I do have to get up earlier in the mornings, but that's not too bad. That gives me also 40-45 minutes in the morning to just clear my head before I go into my classes. I also listen to new albums I bought, some podcasts, and I listen to the radio program in the mornings. It's nice. Plus, I get Tuesdays and Thursdays off. Which is good because I can do homework, and also prepare for Lifegroups on Wednesday night. Overall, it's a good experience.

I am sad that I can't be at the BCM a whole lot this semester. I have class during Noonday and since I'm home on Thursdays, I go to our College Lifegroup Bible Study. Which is actually really cool, but I do miss Manna on Thursday Nights.

Well, that should be a good update for now. Everything else is going pretty well. I hope that everyone reading this has a great rest of the day!

Thinking back to 7th Grade

We're starting Lifegroups tonight, and I have had to really think about where we are going. I know that 7th grade is a weird time. It was very weird for me. The question I had to ask myself was, "When I was in 7th grade, what would I have wanted to hear more than anything?" I thought about it, prayed about it, and decided to look in the book of John since I have a DVD for that.

What I knew in 7th grade was that the world was a scary place. I saw people being mean to each other, I knew it was hard to be a Christian, and I felt like no one really cared about me and that I was all alone. I gradually got over that, but it took a while. What I really needed to know was that even though the world was like that, I had a God who loved me no matter what. He made me special and for a purpose, and that nothing I could do could ever make him love me less.

My epiphany I had this break seems really obvious to me now, but it didn't for a while. Leading a group is not about me at all. It's not about how good the bible study is, how much knowledge they gain throughout the semester, how many verses they memorize, or even how many come to Lifegroups. Leading a group is about doing whatever you can to help them grow. Even when I think back to my Bible study leaders, I know I learned a lot from them. But learning from the books and learning from the heart are two different things.

I don't know how this semester will go. But I will make a better effort than I have been.

Merry Christmas!

Time for me to Brag and be non-humble

I got my grades :-)

• Life Science for Elementary Teachers: A
• Creating Learning Environments K-6: A
• Instructional Design and Technology in the Elementary School: A
• Survey of the Exceptional Child: A
• Child Drama: B

• Semester GPA: 3.813
  
• Overall GPA: 3.658
• Overall Hours Accumulated: 79
  

I guess it was a good semester! Even though the past two weeks before finals were very difficult. Thank you professors, friends, family, and God for giving me strength this semester!

End of the Semester

You can definitely tell that the end is near. This week has been really stressful for me. I printed off more than 500 pages this week! I did some peer teaching on the topic of the water cycle, I had to print out my lesson plans for Biology (3 lesson plans equaling 21 pages. I had to make copies for 22 people...you do the math), I had a radio drama and puppet show in Child Drama (which was lots of fun!), I turned in my 12 Journal Articles as well as my reflection paper for my Special Education Class, I had an Excel Project due this week, and I also had my lesson plan due in my Creative Learning Environment class. I have one big project due next week, and another big one due for exams in two weeks. Not to mention the exams themselves. Do you see what the end of the semester is like?!? It's crazy!

The highlight of my week has been a couple of things. One is that my Biblical Drama I performed for the B.C.M. (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) went really well. I took the Christmas Story from the point of view of one of the shepherds. It was really neat because I didn't know that in the story in Luke, the Shepherds actually went and saw Jesus. Then after they saw Jesus, they went telling everyone about it! So I started off my drama with, "I have some great news to tell you!" It was a lot of fun to do. I was nervous almost all day. It took a lot of prayer and me reciting the part several times before I performed it.

The other big news is that I will not be on Student Leadership Team next year for the BCM. I was just feeling burned out and with commuting, school, my Lifegroup, etc., I couldn't do it. Even if I pushed myself to do it, I couldn't give it 100% and I think the ministry would be effected by it. The cool part is that I was able to be one of the people who interviewed candidates to serve on S.L.T next semester! It was very exciting. We're meeting on Monday to discuss the interviews.

My 7th Grade Boys Lifegroup is going to end on December 12th. What I'm thinking of doing is teaching the final lesson this next week and then watching a video for the 12th. Probably the Charlie Brown Christmas if I can get a DVD copy. This past week instead of teaching straight from the book, we watched two clips from the Chronicles of Narnia and discussed the symbolism in relation to the crucifixion as well as the resurrection. I thought it went pretty well. If nothing else, I thought it was fun. By the way, Prince Caspian comes to theaters on May 16th of next year. Get excited!

I best be going. I just wanted to give you all a quick update. I hope you are having a great week and I will try to update my blog more often!

Stephanie and I

Here is a picture of Stephanie and I at Fall Retreat. It's probably the best picture both of us have taken...except for the fact that my necklace isn't on straight and I seem to be giving my, "Take the Picture this smile is hurting my face" look. Don't get me wrong I am happy, I just show it without smiling. The inner child usually smiles for me and the outer self relaxes. Very long and silly explanation. Anyway, here is the picture for those four or five of you that may have been curious

Fall Retreat: It's time to get Real

This weekend was our 6th-12th grade BBC retreat at Jonathan Creek, Kentucky. This was actually the first time my Lifegroup could go (6th grade wasn't allowed last year, so they went this year as 7th graders). I ended up having 5 people from my Lifegroup go, so it was good to get to know them all better. I've had those guys for a year now, the only new one was Dalton. I have a better idea of their personalities and where they are at, so this may help later in our discussions.

Our theme for this weekend was to "Be Real." We talked about chapter 3 in Colossians and focused on what separates Christians from Non-Christians. We discussed things we need to change and look for in our lives, how we act at church as well as school/home, and we discussed practical steps to apply when we left. I don't know exactly what my group got out of it. We did something a little different. The second session, I decided to read out of Romans instead of doing their activity. The session this morning I thought that I was speaking too much, so I decided to let the Bible speak for itself. I assigned a verse to everyone, read one of my favorite passages, and then tied those verses in to what we learned. Not a lecture, but a 1 minute summary. That went really well.

I can't give a whole lot of details into what I am about to say now. I will just say this much...I was faced with something very big this weekend and it shook me like nothing has before. It is something that truly relies on faith. It put my life into perspective and I think that this has and will continue to challenge me. Once again I apologize for not going into details, but I can't. Just know that if I seemed out of it this weekend or I am extra quiet, there is a reason.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I know that I was supposed to be there, I know that everything happened for a purpose, and I know that life will go on. I just hope that our message was not lost, and we start to get real.

Time for a change

I thought it was time to change the face of my blog. I was looking at other people's blogs, and they had all this neat stuff on it. They had pictures, sound-clips, quotes, etc., and mine was pretty basic. I decided to give it a new look. Make it more me. For the 5 or 10 people that read this blog, I think you will like the change. I'll add more on to it as the time goes by. Not just post-wise, but also with pictures and quotes. It will be fun!

P.S. I found an old post that never got published. It's called, "Miracle in the Andes." It is a book review I wrote this past July. Check it out!

What am I up to?

I am doing lots of different things this semester. I'll start with what I am actually doing, and then things that I really need to be doing.

I am on the Student Leadership Team at the Baptist Collegiate Ministries here at Middle Tennessee State University (Or if you want the short version, I am part of the SLT at the BCM here at MTSU). I am co-leading a Freshman Bible Study with Jessica Riley. It's a lot of fun. I'm finding that it is becomming more of a collaboration with each other rather than a, "I'm here to teach you and you're here to listen" kind of thing. I'm actually learning a lot from both sides. It's great. I'm also leading a 7th Grade Guys Lifegroup at Brentwood Baptist Church. It's going a lot better. We're going through the "7 minutes with Jesus book." Basically, I'm going to go 12 more weeks talking about characteristics of Jesus. We just did "God in the Flesh" last week.

For school, I need to start studying and get some of my work done! I'm doing well with the stuff that's due, but the problem is my teachers gave me a bunch of work and said, "It's due at the end of the semester." That's not really good for me. It's harder for me to work that way than if a teacher gave me specific deadlines on when to have this section due, etc. I'm also thinking of getting a minor in Geography. It's 18 hours of Geography credits, and I believe I already have three of those. That means, I could knock this out in a semester. It also means I would have an extra semester of school. Money would be an issue, but I could work or figure out ways to save money. I'm not really sure. We'll see what happens when it comes around.

Well I need to head back to class. I'm going to a Fall Focus this weekend and my roommate Michael is getting Married! Bunches of stuff going on. I hope you all have a great rest of the day!

Inconsistency

This is kind of how I feel. You have to understand that when I took this picture, I was stuck in Puerto Rico due to a scheduling conflict getting home from St. John.

The reason I chose this picture is because I am tired, I don't really feel like doing anything, and I just got back from a college retreat where we talked about inconsistency. I need to be more consistent with my friendships, school-work, and most important in the time I spend in personal Bible Study.

And yet...I just feel like this. Kinda apathetic. I'll feel better tomorrow. Right now, I just need some sleep.