Up the Sunbeam

-- A little more than ten short months ago, I set out toward a cherished dream  to become a teacher, and today I reached the first major milestone on that road. I clicked the SUBMIT button to turn in my final assignment in the final class of my freshman year of college.  I love looking at the row of binders that hold all my textbooks from this year--each one represents a five-week chunk of my life that I spent on the way to achieving my big dream. Stacked up together, they feel solid, substantial, sacred. Not sacred because of their content (although every bit of truth they hold belongs to God), but sacred because this work is all an offering of love, given for God's glory. He is the reason I stay up late to finish papers. He is the reason I fuss over details. And He is the reason I step up to lead team projects with a commitment to excellence instead of letting someone else do it (or not do it) and just get by with minimum effort. Last year, just before I starte...

-- "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." ~  C. S. Lewis ~ I am the daughter of two teachers. Daddy taught Physical Education and coached football and basketball for forty years, and taught young athletes about faith through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Momma taught several grades from preschool through middle school, not to mention countless hours of women's Bible studies. Between the two of them and their teaching careers that spread across two countries, their impact and influence on young lives will only be measurable in heaven. They both teach like most people breathe. It's part of who they are. Even now, though both have retired from the teaching jobs they loved, whether it's with their most fortunate children and grandchildren or people in the community in various venues, they continue to teach and encourage and inspire. I grew up in a home that valued education . . . a home that saw ordinary moments as...

A single step off the path is enough to change your destination. At 17, I was on a path in pursuit of a Bachelor o f Arts degree at a Bible college in Hawaii. Three weeks before I was to leave my home in British Columbia, Canada to fly to Honolulu, I got word that this school I was to attend was opening a sister institution in San Jose, California. Everyone I had met the previous spring, including the president of the college was going to be in San Jose. What to do? Hawaii?? San Jose?? Another Bible college?? I wanted my parents to tell me what to do. They would not. They wanted me to make my own decision. I was not even 18 yet, and not accustomed to making such big decisions myself, but they had faith that God could and would guide me in making the choice. I asked God for wisdom and guidance, and prayed like never before. Against all the odds, maybe even against reason and common sense, but very much in faith, I decided to go to San Jose. I loved ...