Tootsies

This winter, though not freezing cold for days and weeks at a time, I have had my share of colds.  I blame the "new" germs.  Germs found on the shoelaces of first graders, germs found on the pencils on the floor of the classroom that I gather and sharpen so the writing tools necessary for the genius of a six year old to be imagined is within reach of their little dirty hands.  Germs sprinkled on me by cute little sneezers.  Do I sound bitter?  I'm not, but I confess I think back to fifth graders and their conquered shoe-tying skills, pencil holding skills and last but not least, their ability to sneeze into the inside of their elbows.  Point is, I have not had enough time to keep up with hand washing and/or the application of hand sanitizer to keep those cold germs far from me.  And I'm not fast enough to get out of the way of the all-too-frequent "ha-chew!"

But I am calling this post "tootsies," meaning "feet."  Don't say, "hey wait a minute, tootsies are toes..."  Just let me be the leader here and accept tootsies to mean feet.  Okay.  I see the feet of children while I am tying their shoes or when they accidentally step on my feet because they are not watching where they are going...

I purchased my son new shoes for his feet.  I bought him Tom's.  The pair I liked for him was on sale and it just so happens that when you purchase this brand of shoe, a pair is donated to someone who needs shoes.  Thankfully, Sky allows me to indulge in pretending to be his stylist.  He, for a very long time, in addition to my daughter, happily wore the clothes I chose.  It's not exactly the same now, but he liked these shoes.  I was thrilled because he had been specifying sneakers as the shoe of choice for most of his teenage years.

I have bunions and fungus.  The fungus was acquired from a dirty pedicure spot, at least that is what I have decided to blame.  In the summer, I can disguise the nails by applying several layers of polish, and I even once found fake nails for toes.  They looked great, but I was in constant fear that I would lose one of them while wearing open toed shoes.  Like the people you see on TV whose wigs fly off...

I would love to have lovely feet.  And guess what??  I CAN!!  The Bible says "how lovely are the feet of them who bring good news..."

Territory - Patchwork Style

The Prayer of Jabez is a remarkable way to pray.  I sincerely wish I could say more about prayer when I am in the classroom.  I slip in truths about the Lord and most times the kids simply look at me.  Today I didn't say anything about God, but I told one boy that my kids didn't watch TV when they were little.  About 15 minutes later, he asked me if my kids liked that.  I got a kick out of his inquiry, so delayed, so curious, he felt badly for my children and when he found out they didn't mind not having a TV, he was relieved.  That was off topic, but it's not the only thing off topic in this post, just to warn you. Thus "patchwork" in the title.
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Imagine how glorious it would be if I could pray with an aggressive little girl who is acting out because of her parents' divorce.  Imagine if I could pray with these children.  Imagine.

I didn't plan to mention this next story, but I'm going to insert it.  When I worked in the middle school in town, while in 7th grade social studies, a student raised his hand and asked how to get to Heaven.  This was in the context of a lesson on some ancient civilization's belief system.  The teacher looked at me and I said, "may I answer that question?"  He gave me a nod, knowing I was a Christian.  Cooler than cool, I was able to share how Jesus came to save us and to bring us to Heaven because of His great Love for us.  I must say I was pretty eloquent for about ten minutes.  Why?  The Lord ordained and the Holy Ghost granted words.  Very joyous memory.

Remember my high-maintenance daughter whom I have mentioned in previous posts?  Well, she is at it again.  This time it's the desire and intent to lease a house in Fort Collins with four girlfriends.  I read the lease and sadly the occupancy regulation only permits three girls to sign-on and two, well they would need to reside their illegally.  The story is that everyone does this in this college town.  Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.  What is that anyway?  Just because a person thinks it, is it okay, it is so?  I always wonder that about random religious beliefs.  No scripture to back up a certain thought, but because a person thinks it, they believe it.  So odd, really.  Not holy ground, holey ground.

When I told Danae that this living situation was not going to fly, she became very distraught.  She had believed this house was to be hers, she had claimed her territory.  But the prayer of Jabez makes it certain that the Lord's Hand of blessing is to keep us from evil and that means, to keep us from what is wrong and what is wrong for us.

Pray for my daughter, that she would not want to miss out on true blessing, just for the sake of territory.  Thanks.