Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Moses’s instructions (recorded in Deuteronomy) to teach God’s people, before they entered the Promised Land.  They were blessed with seeing God provide – food, safety, victory in battle, direction, laws. Moses taught them to honor God and keep to his law, to remember and to be thankful… Do we remember that too?

I LOVED going to my LAST back to school night. My son said that I didn’t have to go, but I wouldn’t have missed it in the world. 20 years I have had my kids in school settings both for their education AND their well-being while I myself went to work. 20 years from babies at 9 weeks for my son and 9 months for my daughter I have had them in daycare – making art projects, seeing the turtles and fish, going on field trips, learning potty training and how to read and write. 20 years later I am GRATEFUL they both learn and like to learn – and have real deal career aspirations… We HAVE come a long way, baby. I have put much value in their education just like my family instilled that in me. AND I went to back to school night because I just love to see stuff at the school, and in life, like the woodshop and computer shops, and wished the bakery was open even if I rarely eat those sweets. I realized this likely would be the LAST TIME I would be allowed to roam these halls too. SO much I have seen and so much to be grateful for. Plus having no in-person visit last year, it was REFRESHING to see the people! We all wore masks in compliance, other than that we were back to normal and crowded hallways teamed with life. (it is refreshing to be at work too where it teams with life like normal and that is our gratefulness that was do that normal thing).
Life is a normal thing. Lest we forget to TRY to find normal in every day.

EXCEPT – who expects normal when God is in charge! Life is an EXTRAORDINARY thing. God is too vast to wrap our heads around and that is normal! Because God being God IS AMAZINGLY AWESOME.

God is not just in CONTROL but in CHARGE. And I also KNEW to match my excitement this last back to school evening with my SERVICE to Him. I’m a hired hand, paid in mercy, redeemed in grace. He’s got jobs for all of us to cooperate with and personally I am made to be His encourager (which is easy as I like people too!)… So, the bare minimum that I could do was say thank you to the AMAZING teachers. THANK YOU for raising my kids with JOY.

I say thanks be to God for this school, that the Lord gifted my kids to give them the best hands-on education ever, is where they both blossomed… A firm foundation in education IS the STEM of the flower – and the highschool years are the bloom – and the college years or career years are the floral arrangement of life – put together beautifully.  And this school is a place that the Lord gifted me so conveniently close too, within walking distance so they could get themselves home when I was at work…. So off I went… no schedule as it’s too confusing to navigate the electronic software for a schedule, (my son didn’t screenshot it either or tell me much when i saw him at the yearbook table), so I DID MY OWN THING. Visited economics for his favorite academic subject this year. Totally talking money and how to invest, so much good advice. Then my daughter’s ole haunt, what JOY the shop teacher gets every year I stop back in and I tell him how awesome his education prepared her for college. showed him her photo getting an architecture award. And he also mentioned that my son, who is the school’s IT intern, had set up all the monitors that I saw in his room. A mutual joy.

Off to the computer shop, I saw the neighbor who helped me with my dryer. Saw cool things I didn’t understand, flashing lights not for show but real things with real dangerous electricity. Saw 3D printers like work toys to this generation akin to the first electric sewing machines that helped a previous generation or the first telephones or record machines.  

And THEN I saw the lady in the sling, oh that familiar sling and cushion that I long cast off. Rotator cuff surgery (actually 2) so far behind me that I couldn’t even tell you what year that was. 76 PT visits and I threw them a pizza party when I was finally done. And so this night?  I got to be the encourager… how many people I can still see giving me advice when I had my sling – including the lady at the garage sale demonstrating exercises. Yup, the room faded away as I talked to her, shared my advice for sleeping, medicines, exercise and driving with the FABULOUS one-handed steering wheel knob (which is NOT illegal and IS still in my car years later). She was one week out from surgery,  and doing the best she could. One week out and she got to back to school night? To learn about her kid’s classes? WOW! Good for her! She is looking forward to going back to work to provide a distraction from her pain? Good for her!
That’s all of us – we are to rise above the non-normal, the wacky and the wicked things of life these days. Put the pain in perspective. We are to set our eyes on the things above and ask the Lord: “WHY AM I HERE?” – AND EXPECT AN ANSWER! and be willing to do what He needs!

That’s all of us, we are to get out there and see the people God wants us to run into – whether at work or play. Not a people person? That’s OK, because God made you you, there’s other God-directed and God-gifted situations that you are intended to be in. Your life can be His pearl that He is creating bit by bit, layer by layer.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Let the Lord polish your soul. So BE the Be in “Be Still” – listening, watching, reading, hoping, praying and BEing. Nest to have God’s rest.
For it is:

So cool to know God’s rule. 

So blessed to be God’s guest.

So imperative to hear God’s narrative. 

So berserk to resist God’s work. 

So thankful to drive with God’s tank full.

So good to go with the flow.

So neat to go “Meet and Greet”. 

So today, stay humble and enter life’s fray.

Pray and pray.

So be ready to thank God for a good great day.

Amen
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Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. AND BE THANKFUL. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, GIVING THANKS to God the Father through him. Letter from Paul to the Colossians 3:12-17  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A12-17&version=NIV