Skip to main content

A good year.

I survived my first year as a pastor!

My church surprised me with a cake and a card and a gift!  Since my birthday was so close, the decided to throw that into the mix as well.

I don't know how much my church has gotten out of me being there, but I have learned so much from my studies... but not just the studies.  That is normally what I would have said, but as I write this, I have learned more than just what I have studied.

I am learning things about these people that are here. I am learning about their joys and their sorrows.  I feel connected with them in their struggles of life.  I want to spend more time with them, getting to know them, but I am trapped in my own cycle of "trying to make it" (in other words: work).

I am truly thankful for this year.I am thankful for the lady who gives everyone in the church a hug.  I am thankful for the guy who greets everyone every week, and when he is sick, he makes sure there is someone who will be at that door.  I am thankful for the guy who has recently come back to church.  I am thankful for the new people who are coming, just because they heard there was a new preacher in town.  I am thankful for the older gentleman whose wife can't get out, but he is faithful to make it.  I am thankful for his encouragement each week as he makes a comment about something that he has learned from the Bible that goes right along with what I was talking about.  There are more, but I just wanted to say that I am thankful for this family.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Corri Havlicek9/09/2010 5:32 PM

    I enjoyed this post. It's so great to recognize and express gratitude for the things we are thankful for. I post to a Teacher Development blog for gospel teachers, maybe you could benefit from something there, maybe not...it's at www.sunsetward.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Leave a thought of your own.

Popular posts from this blog

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome!  According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written.  If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events?   Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...
53 comments
Continue Reading »

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.
11 comments
Continue Reading »