It's been a couple of weeks since I've done a Thankful Thursday post.I'm once again short on time due to a busy work week.
Tonite we have Courtney's orchestra concert at school and I have been busy with the house after teaching all a.m. as well as power walking for the Homestretch Challenge which I will be sharing about tomorrow for the Friday Fave Five.
So....here's what I am most thankful for this week:
At the Moms in Touch meeting on Tuesday, I lifted up both daughters with specific requests for each of them. Our theme for the week was "God is merciful". I prayed that both girls would learn to show mercy when needed with peers, family members, etc. Mercy is a tough thing to extend at times, isn't it? Sometimes we are just too quick to judge.
So...I prayed that my teen (Courtney) would continue to show kindness and mercy towards her school and church friends. I also prayed for her time management skills and that they would improve in certain areas.
And the Lord has started to answer my prayers!
I am so thankful we can go to Him, alone, or with other Believers, like in my group, and lift our concerns to Him to carry.
Courtney decided, on her own, to skip her one study hall she gets per week (yes, she is an overachiever) and take her Science test so that she could miss her science class to attend her violin lesson. Typically she is allowed to miss a violin lesson if a test is scheduled for that time period. However, she really wanted to attend the lesson as it was today, the day of a concert and she wanted to make sure she knew her piece. I felt like this was a direct answer to prayer about her time management skills. Her other option was to stay after school to take the test or just skip the lesson. I think she made a wise choice!
The other answer to prayer: (this was taken from the Rachel Scott website)
"Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.
Powerful video/audio footage of Rachel's life and the Columbine tragedy holds students spell-bound during a one hour school presentation that motivates them to positive change in the way they treat others.
This is followed by an interactive 45-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders that shows how to sustain the momentum created by the assembly. The assembly creates the “want to” or desire for positive change. The training session teaches the “how to” and ensures that the positive impact will continue.
That evening the Rachel’s Challenge speaker conducts a powerful session with parents and community leaders. This session is similar to the assembly program and ends with a specific challenge to parents and community leaders, showing them how they can reinforce the decisions their youth are making.
Entertainers, politicians, sports celebrities, educators, and even two Presidents of the United States have been impacted by Rachel’s Challenge. However, students are the target audience and they have proven that they will respond with positive words, attitudes, and actions.
Your school will never be the same after being exposed to Rachel’s Challenge!"
Our school, Shaker High, will be doing this next Thursday!
And only 10% of the student body (we have about 2000 students in grades 9-12)have been asked to be a part of the training team during last period after the presentation. (The entire student body will attend the multi-media assembly).
Courtney was referred by one of her teachers to attend this!
WHY? because of her leadership potential, her compassion for others and her strong faith!
Praise be to God!!!!
My prayer is being answered in marvelous ways. She used to be rather shy and introverted and since becoming a part of the Life::Redefined Youth ministry at our church she has become more extroverted about her Christian walk as well as in general. She is even on the student leadership team after taking the leadership classes. So.....
I thank God for answers to prayer.
I thank my Lord for our church, the youth ministry, and the leaders.
I thank God for our school district for bringing Rachel's Challenge to us.
I thank God for my daughters!
(and the prayers for my youngest were answered in a positive way as well: she had been a little anxious about the NYS Math exams and after the first day (it is a 3 day exam) she said it was actually easier than her normal tests at school and she was no longer nervous! )
Has God done something specific for you this week?
What are you most thankful for today??
3 comments:
That is so cool that your daughter can be part of that program. It sounds like such a meaningful HS program. :)
Mrs. Turner, this is really good news!
I guess God has been showing me 2 things recently. 1) To be more thankful for what I have 2) I feel that He's been showing me some things for the future, specifically with marriage.
1) The past week, I have been realizing on how stubborn I can be and how much I tend to show off to people, more specifically on the road. If you recall back on Dec 7th (the open house for Grace North) and how we didnt really introduce who we were. Surely you remember hearing just a small amount of how loud my car can be......(not too proud of that now actually), the past couple weeks I took a step back (after achieving my first self induced headache thanks to my car) and I realized at how loud I actually am on the road. I realized that I can actually have the look of trying to show off on how loud and obnoxious I can be on the road to others, and then the occasions where I turn the volume up higher around the other kinds of sports cars on the road. The follow fact has occurred to me in the past 3 weeks: it can be a sign of immaturity.
Therefore, I have been turning down my volume a lot more and not changing the artist randomly from a more mellow song (believe it or not, I like a few Country artists...) to the much more loud and harder rock styles at every sports car I see on the road. I'm actually starting to become a little more proud of myself for resisting the temptation to change artists.
Finally on to #2.....
2) One of my really good friend's marriage is failing. I've been trying to support and encourage him to stay in the marriage and how its a vow between you, her, and God. I have never been for divorce whatsoever, and after a few more major events he's done some biblical searching and will be filing for a divorce with what he believes is permissible by God, for her not staying faithful.
It has been effecting me majorly today as both him and his wife are friends of mine (we all met when I was doing 6 months of training for the Army in Arizona) and now he will be spending the rest of the weekend at my place until late Saturday.
I'm torn to hear of this emotionally.
It's been a reminder to me on how serious finding and choosing the person you want to marry and how serious of a decision it can be. Also in the past month or so, as you know from facebook, I've been reading Wild At Heart, and doing a study program with Brian Bateman about the book. This book, so far, has made me realize a good amount on how God had created both guys and girls and how His personality is embedded into the love between two people and even in marriage.
I feel that God is trying to prepare me more for my future wife, whoever it may be and when I find her.
Isn't it wonderful when we see our children rising up to be the young people God is calling them to be? Congrats Courtney on both your time management and decision making and for being referred for the leadership team of the Challenge.
I've read the book that was made from Rachel's diaries. Absolutely powerful!
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