Today at the faculty fellowship, we had our regular time of prayer. One of the attendees shared something she recently started doing with some of the female faculty who meet regularly to pray—committed to something called 30 Days of Praise. Apparently it has its origins in a book of the same name. I’d never heard of it, but as it so often happens, this evening at a cousin’s house, I saw the book on her coffee table. It’s amazing what you see when you know it exists.
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
The New Old
As a new semester arrives like an oncoming bullet freight train, I am praying for great patience. One of the things I have to remind myself continually is no matter how old the mistakes and the immaturity may be, it is a new crop of students and so I can’t get frustrated with them because this is the thousandth time I’ve had to deal with this. I hope by reminding myself of this already, I will achieve a new level of patience, so that even if it is the tenth time for a particular student, I can respond (rather than react) to them with the serenity and mentoring attitude I had the first time I ever heard their issue from a different mouth as a TA 18 years ago.
I am also trying to remind myself to watch for the good students, to let the problem students fade into the background rather than dominating my attention, coloring my perception of the class as a whole.
The squeaky wheel may and should get the grease, but the others deserve attention also, and praise. There is a forest of students out there, and only a few thornbushes. I need to enjoy the forest even as I prune the thorns.
My attitude makes the difference, for all.
SDG
Prayer for Fall Term
Father,
As we prepare for a new year of classes,
We ask you to prepare our hearts,
And attitudes
To love our students, all of them;
To teach them with humility and authority;
To see their situations with your eyes and wisdom
That we may fairly treat them
With Justice and Mercy properly mixed;
That we may clearly communicate
Both content and expectation.
May we teach wisdom and discernment
More than facts and figures.
May we flee from indoctrination
Showing them how to think rather than what.
Grant us the energy to do all we can,
The ability to say “no,”
And the grace to be peacemakers in disputes.
May our students come eager
And either maintain or regain
Their sense of wonder.
Shield them from the things that
Distract and derail their progress.
May they teach us as well,
That we not become hardened with the familiarity of our subject.
Fill us with your Spirit, the Counselor.
May we clearly transmit the wisdom, power, love and truth
Of the Gospel
Through our example and teaching,
Such that we earn their desire
To ask the source of our light.
May our colleagues and students both
Smell the aroma of salvation around us
And turn from death to life.
And finally, grant us rest at the end of term,
That we may be renewed for the next.
Amen
SDG
Honor, and Those That Should Receive It
It’s fun to be young. We have our strength, energy, good looks (some of us), and we have the semblance of wisdom (fewer of us). Everything exists for today when we are young and the future is gloriously more of the same only better, because we won’t ‘get old’ like the others before us—how can we in these fine bodies we have?
This year my grandfather celebrated his 89th birthday and grandma her 90th. Today, I attended a party celebrating a colleague’s 90th birthday. Another colleague said his mom is about to celebrate her 96th birthday. In each of the three lives I can directly observe, they are not strong in the way we think, but are frail. They move slowly and tire more easily than they used to. The look good for their age. But in large measure they do have wisdom. Some have aged more gracefully than others who have fought the reality of their lessening abilities.
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