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musicalmermaid
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Name: Dana
Interests: I love God and love to hear and learn more about HIM, also love to hear about what HE is doing across the world and here. I enjoy being with family and friends, teaching children, cooking, playing tennis, water skiing, oil painting, swimming, piano, flute, singing, love playing golf, teaching Red Cross swimming, being outdoors, hiking, and going to concerts and conferences. I enjoy life and am thankful for each day God gives me to live! (Etc...)
Expertise: ?
Occupation: School Teacher
Industry: Education
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  tennisoilpainter
MSN: iluvyoursmile
Member Since:
7/10/2004
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| Dana's Ponderings (Also remembrance of a murdered friend) Oxford University, England (borrowed pic)
In less than 2 days, I will be flying to England to study at Oxford with my sister If you think of Rebekah and I, please pray for traveling safety and health. I thank God for this opportunity and this trip of a lifetime. England at this time is a very dark country. Please pray that opportunities will arise to share Christ’s love and light. A revival needs to take place like what happened in the day of men like Jonathan Edwards and William Carey. When Carey left America to England, he left with only a wood casket and what could fit in it. He knew he could not come back alive. It was all or nothing. Would we give up everything for the sake of Christ? Even to die? Not so many people, or perhaps any, would have come to the Lord if Carey had had the pursuit of worldly pleasures holding him back.
I had the opportunity to work in jail ministry this week. It was wonderful to see women and juveniles come to the Lord. There is nothing more joying than seeing people come to Christ. Sometimes it easy to get caught up in life and come shortsighted of our purpose on earth; it is to love God and share his love with others. Part of showing His love is sharing His sweet message of salvation. This requires a spirit of humility. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Jesus said when you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto him. The least can mean those homeless, in prison, or to those who seem unlovable. “Then the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
Christianity is not the just the “cross on our necklace” or in words, but deed. Friends, the time is short, very short to fulfill the commission or to be “too busy” to care about the lost that Jesus came to seek and save.
It is only by God's grace in my life that I am not a lost sheep and that He has taught me how to live. Jesus sees how we are to the very core. He sees every person’s deepest hurts, pains, fears, and even pride. Some people are in a desperate search for satisfaction in life like King Solomon was in Eccles. King Solomon had what most men would equate as the pinnacle of success – the beautiful women, the riches, top notch education, the wisdom. Yet in Ecclesiastes, he said all of this was futile (like chasing the wind.) It made him feel empty. The things that he thought would make him happy, didn’t. There was still a void. He began to acknowledge the things he had were from God’s hand. He finally resolved that knowing the Lord was the only thing that could satisfy.
There was a sweet friend that I had not really kept up with in the past year. I met her on a mission trip to Mexico. She recently had gotten married in March. She was expecting. Her husband, who appeared to be a good guy to people, murdered her and her unborn child. She was a beautiful and Godly Christian girl. She was a parent's dream of having a great daughter and I know a devoted wife. No one would have known that she would die in her twenties. She went to be with the Lord. It emphasized to me the importance of loving the ones near and dear to me. It also emphasized the importance of loving the lost and having a passion for the lost Christ died for. The person you pass today may not be here tomorrow. I remember this friend working alongside me on this mission trip. I never dreamed she would be killed. The following is a verse that came to mind when I thought about her life and how she lived it: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. ☺ With love through Christ, Dana
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| Hello xangans. I guess it has been forever since my last update. I have been so busy with closing out the school year, it seems my head has almost been spinning. :) If you wish turn up your volume on your computer. I changed my music.
 This a friend named Melody. Her mother is very talented at sewing and actually made this dress for a play she was in. We took a trip to Texas mid May. It was fun to visit friends in Dallas, Houston, and family in Beaumont. I guess once a Texan always one, right?
 This is me with my class. It has been an exciting year. I miss these kids already. I will get a new set next year.
A student said, "Miss Nance, I am gonna miss you, if we are not gonna come here anymore, who is going to take care of us?" :) I feel so loved.
On the homefront:
Rebekah is enjoying summer. Rebekah is still teaching piano, violin, and harp. She also has played harp at events in the area and abroad. She got a new dog. I call him Bernard. Rebekah calls him Cookie and sometimes Bernard. He a whole lot smarter than the pomeranian we gave away. As pretty as she was, she was not very smart or calm. She was wild.
  Dog looking like his owner.
Throughout June I will keep busy with teaching swimming, painting, and tennis. It is nice to have a paid summer off. I will be going to England in July for about a month. We will go to Scotland for about three days. I will be studying at Oxford and getting Masters credit through Southwestern Theological Seminary. It is so exciting, I can hardly wait! I will post pictures when I get back. I hope to take an excursion over to Ireland if there is time.
Lately I have been reading in Ezekiel and Ezra. Ezra, who was a priest for the people of Israel, was found in prayerful supplication in chapter 9. In chapter 9, it talks about how the Israelites did not separate themselves from the ways of the Canaanites, and several other “ites”. Ezra was pleading with God. At the beginning of this prayer he was reminding God of how gracious He had been to the Israelites, His people. This was a supplication of repentance, confession, and awareness of how they disregarded His commands. God used Ezra to speak to the people. He told them to separate themselves from the foreigners around them, even from the Caananite wives. God hated these alliances with people who were not His own. I was thinking about this: There were probably varying degrees of Canaanites, some better and some worse. They all had one thing in common, though - they were not God's own or did not seek to do His will. As children of the light, we are like Israelites. We need guidance of the High Priest Jesus. He leads us into all truth. We are called not to intermarry with the world. This could be marrying an unbeliever, or this could mean even compromising in one’s daily walk with God. (Such as being tempted to do the worlds way of dealing with life, or having a selfish, outward focus.)
God wants a people that are committed to be His people. All or nothing. The Israelites were God's people, but they made alliances with the “ites”. This joining caused them to become apart of the “ites”. Perhaps these Canaanites looked glamorous on the outside and had the right talk, yet their hearts did not love God. Some of those “ites” could perhaps have even claimed to be Christians. To not be an “ite” and be in the army of God, it requires repentance of alliances with the world, an abandonment of self and fleshly desires to Christ. God was so angry about those alliances, He actually wanted the Israelite men to leave their foreign wives. What compromise may God be leading you to leave? Are His commandments important enough to your heart, to follow, revere, and to love? On the other side is the Promised Land, which is far more satisfying than anything this world can offer. Until next time, Dana
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| Make A Wish................................
 (Canon Powershot Point and Shoot)
In a perfect world.........................................
Nap would be every day at 1:00
Snack wold be every day at 2:00
Recess would be for over 30 minutes
Life would be care free just as blowing bubbles.................
How about it? :) :)
BTW, I figured out how to put music on my xanga. So take a minute to let it load. :) I am going to try to get back into updating once a week and changing my music, too. It is about time that I got that one figured out.
Blessings, Dana
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| I feel so loved............................................................................................................and adored...
Here are some good quotes that made my day:
"Miss N......., we want to be just like you." (Oh dear!)
with all seriousness from a little boy, "Miss N......, you are like a princess."
"Miss N......., I like your shoes."
There are so many cute quotes all in days work, yet I can't keep track of them all.
"Culture's virtue is its subtle danger. It stresses the importance of appearances and superficialities and tends to neglect the soul's need of inner cleansing and forgiveness. God is not concerned with the man you seem to be - HE is interested in dealing with the man you really are.........Man judges by the quality of another's clothes, his Dun and Bradsheet rating, the kind of car he drives, the clubs to which he belongs, and the church which he attends. But to God these things are a thin veneer. God looks directly at the heart - upon its attitudes, its humility, and its pride. He makes approval based on what man really is." ~ Billy Graham
Till next time, Miss N.
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WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN'T............................................................GOD CAN!
He will do beyond what you ask, think, dream, or imagine. How big is your faith today?
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" ~Jer
"He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of a firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." Matt. 17:20
I was cutting through piles of newspapers about 2 weeks ago for my students to do paper-mâché, and came across the above comic strip. I thought, "That is exactly how I feel... like Charlie Brown who can't get his kite in the air." What was funny is that before I had seen this, I bought a kite for my students to fly at recess. As a child, I always loved kites. I cut this comic out and then laid it aside. It was brought back to my remembrance again, when I took the kids out on the playground later that day and tried to help them get the kite in the air, but it just would not fly. (Good grief!) I thought to myself, "I am going to flunk this next teacher exam, just like I can't get that kite to fly."
I have been vigorously preparing for my final teacher exam which is called the Praxis III, working on my masters, and teaching school. Our state puts teachers through rigorous testing in order to become certified. I have already been through 4 written teacher exams and received my initial 3 year license. But this final test was to receive my standard license. It was to be three hours of observation and interview by a State Department of Education assessor who came to my school.
This past week I had the Praxis III and formal evaluation (where a principal comes and observes and rates my
teaching.) I was so scared that I was going to fail. I had been up till like 2 a.m. every night consecutively for about week, preparing and writing papers. Even the night before the test I could not go to bed early because of all I had to do. I had a nightmare the night before the lady came to observe that my students were acting out as they hardly ever do, and the lesson fell apart, and I started crying right there in front of the assessor. It was so real. When I woke up, I was so glad that it was not true. Yet I was so tired and weary, and had the agonizing fear of failure. The verse that comforted me was out of Isaiah, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." That HE did. I had to reach out to God; I was weak and tired, and I knew in myself I could not do it and pass this exam, or do good on my evaluation. I told God, "I can't do it, but you can. Please show yourself to me." That day, the test and interview time went wonderfully, and I was amazed. On the following day was my evaluation, which I had also been worried about. I got an excellent evaluation with glowing comments from my principal. One of the things she said was that she was "honored to be in my classroom." I told her, "To God be the praise."
This test was so rigorous that I have been preparing for the past 9 months with my mentor on my breaks. To me
it was a BIG thing. Sometimes we have fear of failure in our lives. For some people in may be in certain areas. Yet we serve a BIG God who cares about little things and the things that are big to us. That afternoon after my test, the children wanted to bring out the kite again. This time though, it flew, and it flew for more than 3 minutes. When I had it in the air, I just wanted to thank God again. For strengthening me when I felt so weak and incapable, helping me, and actually holding me up by His right hand, just like the wind picked up the kite to soar. God enabled me to soar over the fear of failure in my heart. Not only with the stellar evaluation and good test, but with pulling an A on one of my first master classes that I thought I was going to flunk, because of not having enough time to study in preparing for my teacher exam.
One of the ladies who works at our school told me she walked past the room during my Praxis III test, and she could not believe how one of my students with special needs was sitting perfectly still. She said, "I wanted to find out what God you pray to, because all of your students were sitting perfectly still." I told her I pray to Jesus Christ who is God, and that He is a living God.
What prayer do you have today? What fear may be plaguing you today? May you press into HIM with all faith, that HE alone can beat the odds and get a kite that you think just won't fly into the air.
Love, Dana | | |
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