a quick word before church
Yesterday morning I took a nice long walk, to clear my head and spend some quiet time in prayer. Before I left I chose to read Proverbs 3 - because I remembered the verse:
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
I knew what physical path I would be taking, but I wanted my spiritual path, my ‘line of thought’ to be straight as well…
Path - lead me on the right path.
With a quick check, I found the same sort of verse 6 more times in Proverbs and at least 5 times in Psalms. Lead me on the right path.
Maybe the most popular - at least for those thousands upon thousands who attend Christian Schools, or teach in them, where the pledge to the Bible is included along with the pledge to the American Flag is Psalm 119:105 “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
When I started to read Proverbs 3, I got side tracked with the first verse. In some translations it reads “My son, do not forget my teaching.” Others say, do not forget my Law. But I started thinking about teachings - doctrines - and the teachers that teach them.
I thought of my own teachers. Nearly every teacher I ever had, except for my two years at community college and the professors I’ve had lately in my master’s courses in special education, have at least claimed to be Christians. And in their teaching - whether in the sciences or the humanities, God and His word was honored. In this, I was greatly blessed.
Not only was I taught the academic basics, I was taught to love learning, I was taught how to find answers for myself, and test those answers against the Truth. I was taught to recognize truth, and reject lies. I was taught to be kind. From Sr. Sheila to Dr. Livermore, from Thaddeus to Decker…I learned and I remember.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding…God bless all those fine teachers I’ve had, and help me to teach - reading, writing, math, social studies, help me to teach those in Your light!
Time to Go to Church!
10 comments:
"I was taught to recognize truth, and reject lies."
Boy is that ever a long lost skill set!
Great thoughts this morning.
~Kevin
Hey yo Maryellen,
I happened to read a comment you wrote on another blog about the witch doctor or whatever that died, and I must say that as long as you're going to be a Christian anyway it impresses me that you seem to identify and embrace actual Christian values, as illustrated by your comments indicating that your god would understand the woman and her motivations and forgive her thusly, which is what, if I believed it, I would think your bible says is Jesus' attitude, as opposed to all the "God loves and forgives everybody, except you, you, and you who are going to hell for being pro-choice, Democrat, atheists, or fans of a different football team than me" types out there.
This is supposed to be a compliment, from me to you, about your level of enlightenment. It's hard for me to write one about a subject like this to someone who is religious, so I figured I'd explicitly say so at the end to make sure you understood what I meant.
MC, be still my heart...
thanks for the compliment - I think
Haven't had my monday morning cup of coffee yet, but i'm thinking
Truth - how could one ever recognize Truth if all truth were relevent,
and Enlightenment? How can anyone acheive enlightenment if they don't believe in the Light (or the darkness for that matter)?
Because enlightenment is not a religious thing. Enlightenment, as found in medieval history, as given birth by the Renaissance and the pre-Industrial Revolution, is actually the move away from hardline religionism. Enlightenment is secular humanism.
ahhh,
secular humanism...been there, done that. easier for me to have faith in God than it is for me to have faith in humanity.
Can't take the LIGHT out of enlightenment, that only leaves darkness.
If you call the informed mind darkness and the blind certainty of superstition light... Listen, if you can't accept a compliment or read a history book about the Age of Enlightenment (which defines the word, not your puns), just tell me, and I'll stop trying.
Sorry I bothered to try to say something positive.
mc, don't be so sensitive
i did appreciate the compliment
right now my unenlightened life is getting more and more stressed and messed...i'm late for work gotta go. didn't mean to bug ya by my puns
Well that was definitely an interesting exchange. Are you two good now?
I'm good (as good as i can be when the whole world is crashing in around me...i'm not handling these little stingy things very well...
100 bee stings is as terrible as one huge wound isn't it?)
Worse actually. They don't give you the advantage of shock that one big wound would give you. Shock would help you not notice the pain.
Of course shock can also lead to death, so perhaps we should be thankful after all that the 100 stings still allow you to grasp what is going on around you, and fight on.
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