It's Been a While..........

Wow! It has been quite a while since I've posted here. Life has been crazy busy as I help my mother transition to her new role in life, and as I transition myself from college teacher and administrative career woman to an 4th and 5th grade teacher. 2011 was a year for intense change and now 2012 is here! I pray that this year brings peace, renewal, refreshing and rebirth to my family as well to each of you and yours.

For a while after my father passed away, the art and writing in my soul transcended from the melancholy to the point of being basically non-existent. My life became filled with sensation overload, I guess. The transition of the past year, and the grief, and the process of learning to live life without my father, and the process of helping my mother, and the process of dealing with a new love in the middle of it all has been extremely challenging. Thankfully, God has been with me and with us every single step of the way. While I'm not quite to the place where I can say life is simply rosy again, I can say that there is peace in the midst of the storm. I have learned that through anything life sends our way God is faithful, if we will simply turn to him and lay our burdens at his feet. When we cannot carry ourself, He truly does carry us through.

Our church has been in phenomenal revival, the work in Vietnam seems to be thriving and there may be some potentially exciting news regarding that work in the months to come! Also, our church is expanding! We've purchased an old school building that is simply a work of art (if you love old structures, like I do), on the west-side of our city. The property is comprised of a city block and we have already maxed out the all-purpose room there at our first 5th Sunday of 2012. Yes, we are growing! We thoroughly enjoyed the property during our Jubilee celebration and the kids loved the play ground, while the youth had a blast on the basketball court. We are looking forward to starting a pre-school and possibly a day-care in the near future; with plans for a full blown school in the next couple of years to come.

It is late, so I will sign off. I've posted a few photos of some fun times in the fall of 2011. Hopefully, this site will become active once again. Happy New Year and may 2012 be blessed!

An Ode to Modesty....

Recently, the trend of exposing flabylicious upper arms has bewildered me. Someone forgot to send me the memo that the expanse of skin between my shoulder and my elbow, with it's lack of muscular definition, it's shaky blubberiness and it's phenomenal whiteness is now one of the most sexy parts of my body. I'm not sure if this trend was started by Michelle Obama, who now appears in photographs taken all over the world where her upper arms are rarely, if ever covered. However, amazingly enough to me, the trend has caught on, along with the trend of exposing bountiful amounts of cleverage, (As my father used to call cleavage. Please someone tell me what is so attractive about a chest crack), and copious amounts of knobby, wrinkled, pockmarked, stretch marked, surgically enhanced, thigh encumbered knee exposures.

~Oh Modesty, why hath we forsaken thee....

The scariest part of these trends are that they are commonly being adopted by "Godly" women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and up; who are married women with children and should be embracing one of the classiest moments of their life and keeping their treasure for their spouse. I'm not sure what happened to aging with grace rather than hasting to avoid aging. A mature woman, is to me, in one of the most beautiful stages of life and should be confident in who she is, rather than scrambling to portray herself as 20 years younger in a desperate attempt to fit society's skewed image of beauty. Why are we still having an identity crisis in mid-life, especially as a child of God? (Now don't get me wrong, desiring to get in shape and to be attractive and healthy, single or married, is not a sin.)

Young ladies in our ranks, looking up to us as an example for Godliness, modesty, and holiness find themselves confused. They hear ministers preach on modesty at a conference then go home to see the ladies in their life continue on as though that minister was out of the loop. Peek-a-boo clothing and hosiery, glam and glitter this and that, insanely expensive finery, shoes that look as though they should be on the strip in Vegas, rather than in a place where God's glory should be the main focus and on and on. If we're honest, we each find ourselves navigating the tricky waters of worldliness in the crazy fashions of today. Where is the balance? At what point is this battle simply about self, feeding self, justifying self, accommodating self, petting self, and reassuring self? The question seems to be "who exactly are we competing with?"

Churches used to hold standards of holiness, yet now, many are terrified to mention the very word "standards" lest they be labeled as legalistic. The "love doctrine" has taken the place of "separation" doctrine. Many wear clothing somewhat identified with the church; however, with the mindset of showing as much skin as they can possibly get away with. At what point is it appropriate to deify self?

Reading in my bible, the scripture stands out to me where Timothy admonishes that women be modest in their apparel, with shamefacedness (natural, without make-up), dressing with sobriety, without broided hair (hair with jewelry/ribbons entwined), without the wearing of pearls and gold, and/or costly array. He also admonishes the ladies to adorn themselves with good works. (I Timothy 2:9-10) Therefore, at what point does our interpretation of God's word surpass the simple truth of the inspired word? Are the rhinestones and pearls all over our clothing, in our hair, on our accessories, in our hosiery, etc... in agreeance with scripture?

Romans 8:35 says "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" In Revelations 3:17-19 Jesus says "¹⁷Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ¹⁸I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. ¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." The more one reads through the scripture, the more we find that God is not impressed with our nakedness, our richness on this earth, or our being increased with goods. In fact, he calls our nakedness a shame to us. Basically, he is saying we need to anoint our eyes so we can see properly,which seems to be admonishing us to quit looking at ourselves through our carnal mind; but rather to review ourselves with spiritual eyes and to see ourselves as God sees us.

Additionally, I Corinthians 6:20 goes on to say "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." If we are God's and he thinks that nakedness, and vainglory, are a shame to us how do we glorify him in our body and spirit when we forsake modesty in apparel, accessories, conversation, and way of life? How do we glorify God in our body by showing off ourselves to bring attention to our attributes? When the spotlight is continually on self, in what way is God glorified? It's often been preached that the further we find ourselves from Christ, the less clothing we find ourselves in need of.

Now, some will think that I am against dressing feminine and pretty upon reading this. How wrong they are, and I truly mean no offense. However, Sexy and feminine are not synonymous. Exposed and attractive are not synonymous. Fashion and Style are not synonymous. Gaudy and Stylish are not synonymous. I could go on... but for time's sake I will not. A lady can be modest in her apparel and style and be one of the most attractive, beautiful ladies on the planet. In fact, if one were to truly ask as fashion icon what true style is they would most commonly find an answer such as "Fashion fades; only style remains the same" by Coco Chanel; or "in order to be irreplaceable one must always be different" by Coco Chanel; or "a girl should be two things, classy and fabulous"~ Coco Chanel; or as Yves Saint Laurent would say "Fashions fade, style is eternal"; or “Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.” ~ Coco Chanel.

Rather than being a clone of fads and fashions, we should not be ashamed to be a trend setter for modesty. We are beautiful, we are glorious because we have the true glory of God upon us when we live in his spirit and his spirit resides in us. We don't have to compete with carnal trendsetters to find our identity as a beautiful woman. God purchased us with his own blood; we have the highest calling on earth and that is simply to walk, to live, to dress and to be as a child of God should be.

Bro. Tony Spell preached this past week on the Perils of Pride. It touched my heart and convicted me in many ways to check myself. If the things I do are an attempt to deify and bring attention to self, in what way does that glorify my God, my creator, the lover of my soul, my savior? Therefore, as old fashioned as I may seem, I think I'll simply stay a member of the "modesty rocks club." In my heart, modesty = true beauty. I guess it is all in one's perspective and perception of themselves in relation to their god/God. ;-) Love in Christ!

~I Timothy 2:10 "For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do."

School Time....

School started today, and I've now begun my first year of teaching 4th and 5th grade in my own class setting. It was a great day and the kids were so good. I know this was the first of many days to come and is yet the honeymoon stage of this whole new dimension of teaching; however, it gave me cheer and hope of many more good days to come. :)

We started off the day with chapel, and I shared with the class some information about myself, class rules, upcoming events and set the pattern for how class would work. Then, we dove right into work. The students did their worksheets and then in between subjects, they were allowed to work on an "all about me" poster. These posters, I felt were an opportunity for me to learn more about each of the students on their terms; and when finished, we will hang them on the wall outside of our classroom also. This will give the other students that are new to school a chance to learn more about their school mates.

These were waiting for me on my desk when I walked in and just simply put a smile on my face!

My family helped me so much the past two weeks in getting things decorated, cleaned and put back together. I couldn't have accomplished half of what I did without their help. They are the best!

Tomorrow is another busy day, so off to bed I go. Later I will share some photos of the super cute curtains my friend made for my class room! Ciao~

Class Creations....

Here is a Wordle that I created tonight for my "Love God" board in my class. Coolest website ever!

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Don'tcha wish your teacher was cool like me.....;-p Haha! JT! Fun Stuff!

Interesting Day....

I went for an interview tonight to teach in a christian school. There were some interesting events that led up to the interview and some even more so interesting events that occurred following the interview. It will be interesting to learn the results of today and tonight's events and depending on the outcome, I may share more details on this story later. Please help me pray that God's perfect will would be done.

My New Love....

I loooovvveee Pinterest!!! It is a great, organized, simplified way of keeping track of, and sharing with friends, the different sites one may find while searching for a variety of things. Members can organize their pin boards by subject matter, hobby, resource, idea, inspiration, and so on; and then simply "pin" a photo, a saying, an idea, a creation and so forth to the specific board. It is basically a virtual bulletin board, that one can share with friends, cohorts, family, and more. Also, members can browse the pin boards of other members for great ideas and re pin those ideas to their own pin boards for later use. This site is my new addiction. I have pin boards for food, party ideas, design and crafts, fashion, organization, photography and home fashions just for a start; with a gazillion other pin board ideas already cropping up more each time I go browsing the web for something. It's fun, it's simple and a great way to share wonderful sites and ideas with others! Come check out my page at http://pinterest.com/aeelder/, download the pin button to your bookmarks bar and get to pinning! ;-) You'll be addicted before you know it!

Getting Ready to Travel....

In a few short months it looks like once again, we will be heading overseas. I am so excited!! This time I will be visiting and working in Vietnam for a while. So, the journey to becoming culturally educated to this area of the world has began. Some simple things I've learned this weekend is that one always greets the elders first, then the younger; as well as that one always greets a male before they greet a female if they are together when introduced. Another lesson learned is that if an Asian friend bows to us we bow to them in return.

Have you ever been to Asia, or Vietnam? Are there some cultural lessons that you've learned that you would like to share that may help us be well prepared? If so, please feel free to share. I'm ready to learn and excited to go!

Happy Monday! Blessings!

Moving Forward....

The last few months have been challenging, and life changing. However, there is only so much an individual can take before they have to move. Whether it be move forward, or move backwards. Backwards is not an option here, so forward is the only direction to go from here. If life has taught me anything in the last few weeks it is that you have to smile when you feel like crying, laugh when you feel like screaming, love when you feel like hating, work when you feel like hiding, live when you feel like dying, and pray when you feel like there is no use in trying.

Some major doors have closed, and some days this trip feels an awful lot like living on the edge; however, learning to trust and obey when one doesn't understand and most definitely cannot see the full plan has it's certain rewards. If you should ever decide to ask God to teach you how to walk in faith, and to teach you how to trust without limitations you best be prepared. That's all.

I'm back, I think. Maybe writing will bring back to me the pleasure that I once took in it. It's been some time since I felt the desire to author any type of work simply for the pleasure of it. Three years of school writing almost cured me of any desire to write my brains out. Not completely though.

Let's see what lies ahead as we begin this new journey into a major world of unknowns. Let the adventures begin......