Lesson(s) Learned

Why do we want to live the façade of a life “fixed” instead of admitting our brokenness? Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way… We’re all broken. All of us. Each and every one of us. Every single one of us. The Bible clearly teaches us that ALL have sinned. That means me, you, the sweet little grandma figure you idolize, and every one in between. We’re in shambles. We’re just not right. We’re broken. Growing up, I used to think I had the perfect life, the perfect family, the perfect everything…. I must have been God’s favorite or something because it was really ridiculous how perfect my life was. Or seemed. How perfect my life seemed. There’s a world of difference between what “was” and what “seemed” to be so. Now, I’m not negating the fact that God extra-blessed my with a huge family full of wonderful people that do love Him, but let me set the record straight. We’re not perfect, and it took me a lot of grown-up years to figure that out. But the problem is ...

The Wonder-full Life I’m not even two days into my break from school for the summertime and my relief from all duties related to classroom teaching for quite-the-while, and what to I find myself doing? That’s right. I’m teaching. Only this time, I’m teaching myself new things. As a modification to the old saying goes, “You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the lessons out of the teacher.” Ok, so that isn’t a modification to an old saying. I pretty much made it up on the spot. It’s only thirty seconds old. You’re welcome. Old or new sayings aside, it’s true that the lessons a teacher-at-heart gives and shares oftentimes extend far beyond the classroom walls and go on to embracing, altering, and inspiring another soul for the long haul. Just two days ago, I became decidedly anxious to learn about all-things-domestic that I don’t yet know about (which I’m learning is pretty much everything). Cooking. Cleaning. Sewing. Building and crafting things ...

  When I was younger, my siblings and I very quickly learned which errands to go on with my mom and which errands to run far away from. The one errand in particular I want to share with you this morning is when my mom would go up to the bank. Now, I don’t believe this bank is in business any longer; but back in the 90s, my mom would go to the drive-through teller at Barnett Bank. Whenever you went to the drive-up teller at Barnett Bank, they would give out lollipops to the kids in the car, which is probably while they’re no longer in business today because the Hill kids depleted them of their lollipops back in the 1990s.   But seriously, mom would pack all of us in the car, she’d talk with the bank teller, she’d get her envelope full of money, and they’d ask how many kids were in the car… she’d say 5. They’d say “send back some of the money to cover the cost of all those lollipops, lady.” No just kidding. But on those bank errands, everything was fine. Things went surpri...