Discipline

I must admit, I'm not fantastic at discipline. At school I want to set rules and enforce them, but I also want to give a bit of leeway and be merciful. I think in the past I may have been a bit too lenient. Anyways, my year 7s had been really respectful for the first half of the year and had kept the rules so I let them have a bit more freedom. This term they have gone a bit crazy and I almost gave up on them. Though in the past two lessons I gave the class a seating plan and reiterated the rules. And it is paying off! Hooray! Discipline is important.

I'm glad I have a Father in heaven - God, who disciplines me because I am his child, he loves me and knows what is best for me. I hope I can have a well disciplined and orderly class so that they too will know that my discipline is done in love.

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:7-11

From Car-O-Line

Food, Bible and Work

I was just thinking to myself, that ever since Masterchef stopped screening on tv, my Bible reading has been going down. Because I was so religious in watching Masterchef that I had to make the point of having Bible before Masterchef.

Anyways, I did manage to read some Bible this morning. I was reading some proverbs that were talking about work - and the repeated idea in those proverbs was that you work so that you can eat (Prov 16:26, 19:15, 20:13, 27:23-27).

So yes, it has got me thinking about work. You see next year I'll be doing MTS at my church which is very exciting. However it also makes school work at the moment less exciting. Though I need to remember that I still need to work hard and not be idle at school as this is pleasing to God (2 Thes 3:6-10). I also need to not make an idol of work, seeking the kingdom of God before career. Does that make sense?

From Car-O-Line

better times

Yesterday I had a really great day at school. I was pulling out all the rock instruments and jamming with my year 8 students. I also got to do some cool theory with my year 12s and then we celebrated by having an epic Queen sing-a-long. Such is the nature of teaching - good days and bad days. Praise God that it all seems to balance itself out.

I'm home today and have had a good day so far. I got to meet up with Anita and read the Bible together. Then I went over to Dad's place and went out to Maccas for lunch together. Then I came back home, did the laundry and read a bit more of the book A Call to Spiritual Reformation which is a totally awesome and challenging book.

Tonight I'm going to Cathedral Cross Training. I've been for the last 3 weeks and it's been really good. Philip Jensen has been giving a short talk on different issues Christians face and then there has been training time. I'm learning how to use Just for Starters to follow up a new Christian. It's proving to be a great set of studies and I look forward to be able to use them sometime.

From Car-O-Line

hard times

Why does adolescence have to be so hard for teenagers, because seriously it makes teaching them a whole lot more frustrating. So, we're up to term 3 at school and so much changed over the holidays. For example, in my year 7 class, one girl has totally changed her friendship groups and is sitting at the opposite end of the classroom as her old best friend, the boys are pretending to be 'men' by throwing things and running around. Woe is me!

On a more positive note, I think my year 8s are becoming more mature which is lovely. They have already put me through a lot of crap this year and I think they are starting to respect me more because I've been patient with them.

Won't even bother talking about my year 12s.

From Car-O-Line

p.s: sorry for the whinge, I'll try to blog about more positive things next time.