Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

My entire life, I have had no desire to smoke. My maternal grandfather died six years before I was born from the one-two punch of emphysema and lung cancer caused by years of smoking. From what I have heard about him, he and I would have gotten along very well because I am so much like him. With each thing I learn about him, I become even more resolved to never let the butt of a cigarette touch my lips. However, there was one day I desperately craved a cigarette. It had been a stressful day at work, as many of them are. The field of special education is not for the faint of heart. As I began my drive home, I craved something to release the tension flowing through me, and a cigarette seemed like a viable option. After all, many people turn to them for the same reason. My promise to myself to never smoke was the only thing holding me back. Now, I easily could have just given in, but that option seemed almost too easy. Instead, I prayed and asked God why I was feeling that pull toward...

Last month, I wrote a post  about taking the time to break free from the noise in our life and rest in God's presence. Since writing that post, I have been working on praying rather than stressing, and being a bit better about going to bed at a reasonable time. However, I was still feeling stressed until two weeks ago, when I was home sick from work for two days. I work as a paraeducator in a K-2 special ed classroom. There are two paras in our room, which serves 12 students in 5 different homerooms. The two of us are kept quite busy, and it was quite stressful for me times that the other para was gone. So the first day I was sick, it was quite hard for me to stay home because I knew how much I was needed to help things run smoothly. Then the next morning, I was still sick. I didn't want to stay home another day, but I knew that rest is what I needed, so I made sure to get it. I was nervous about putting my coworkers in a stressful situation due to my absence, but when I r...

"When the stress is on the rise, in my heart I feel You say, 'Just breathe.'"~" Breathe "-Jonny Diaz Monday morning at work, we got an announcement that the internet was down. Later, it was revealed that a cable had been cut, and we were going to be without internet all day. While we were initially feeling a bit stressed, since our 21st century classrooms rely heavily on technology, we were able to adapt, and actually ended the day feeling surprisingly calm. As one of my coworkers put it, since there was no possibility of checking emails every time she had a break, she felt freer. She didn't realize how dependent she was on checking e-mails until she couldn't, and she found that she didn't miss it. I myself felt a bit lighter, and wondered if maybe being plugged in isn't actually all it's cracked up to be. Last Sunday's sermon at my church was about spending time in silence, and how hard that can be for us. We fill our days with l...