Obedience

Obedience. What images or thoughts does that word conjure up in your mind? It makes me think of my parents. Or my nieces and nephews. Most often I think of this word as it relates to parenting. That makes sense then that God desires obedience from us, his children. It's an interesting concept that has been brought up several times in thoughts and emails over the past week.

In all of our relationships, God demands that we live in an obedient manner to him. We are to be kind, no matter what. We are to forgive, no matter what. Bottom line, we are to consider others' needs before our own. We are to love, period. There is no "except when" statement in any of these. We often get in this pattern of thinking that asks "what about me then?" Or, "how long am I supposed to do this?" God's answer is a resounding, "FOREVER." We are to love, serve, forgive, and be kind forever. Regardless of the reaction or reciprocation of those around us, we are to live lives in pursuit of God all the time. God doesn't say, "I only want you to love this person as long as they are nice to you." God wants us to love forever, regardless of the actions of anyone around us.

A friend from church emailed this audio clip out from a marriage counseling session. The topic is obedience as it relates to marriage but the concept of obedience forever can be applied to every area of each of our lives. http://www.chris-bence.com/temp/Marriage.mp3

Mi Casa es Su Casa

You asked for and now you have it....only five months later! Check out mi casa!!!

1st picture: The front view of my house.
2nd picture: This a picture of the big grassy space that served as runoff storage during a huge storm--the field sits just northeast of my house.
3rd picture: My kitchen...
4th picture: Just to the right of the kitchen sits my dining room...
5th picture: Still rotating to the right is the living room.
6th picture: My backyard--small jungle or what?? I am tackling this task this weekend with my shiny new lawn mower (thanks mom and dad)!

My classroom

Here is the Buckeye Ag Facility in all it's glory. Our building sits just north of the rest of the school , unattached and out of the way. It's nice, I like being isolated (just kidding)! I feel so blessed to teaching in this program and below you will see why with pictures of our greenhouse, tractors, covered arena and livestock pens, and a couple of views of my classroom. I also included a picture of my the most recent bulletin board I did--I was pretty proud of it.

This is the south wall of my classroom. You can't really tell but all my students sit at table to the right of this picture.