It’s almost Christmas! People everywhere and from many different backgrounds are looking forward to a day that celebrates the birth of Jesus, family, friends, love, giving, feasting, and overall gratefulness. Men, women, and children are excited for the morning that they have anticipated all year. Christmas is a wonderful time of year for so many people.
Christmas is a day that inspires all those who revere it. Christmas brings people together in a seemingly magical way. You don’t have to look far for proof of this. Just take World War One as an example. There were unofficial ceasefires that took place on the West Front of the War. Christmas stopped a War temporarily! A ceasefire during a World War is a remarkable feat! It is mind-boggling just to think about. Christmas seems to be able to bring people together in unimaginable ways. What is it about Christmas that brings people together, even in the most unimaginable circumstances? What makes it so “magical”? As far as the “day” itself goes, it’s just another date on the calendar. If not the day, then what else could it be? Is it possibly what Christmas celebrates? That proposes a strong argument, although people celebrate Christmas in many different ways for different reasons. Maybe it’s just the fact that it gives people something in common to come together and celebrate, even if they are celebrating for various reasons. This last idea seems to me to be the most likely start to an answer. How can we take the commonality brought about by Christmas to times before and after Christmas? How do we get this magic to apply to the rest of the year? Maybe it could be done by finding the commonality between ourselves and our communities. That would be a good start. What else could we perhaps do? What else about Christmas seems to bring people together? Could it be that we should not only look to our commonality in celebrating Christmas but should we also accept the differences we have for a time? Maybe we’re on to something now. The holiday cheer and acceptance that occurs around Christmas could possibly be replicated. If we all make a conscious effort to accept the differences of the people around us and focus on what we have in common. Doing this could potentially let us build tighter-knit communities and could begin to heal the rift that seems to exist in our country at this time.
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Do you ever wonder why something is the way it is? Like why is the sky blue, how is it that the combustion of an engine propels a car, what is the process of combustion, why is grass green, why do we do a specific thing a certain way? Whatever the question you have, find the answer! Even if the answer leads to more and seemingly endless questions.
How do we learn? Most of us do this by asking questions. Inside of each of us, there is a small child that we once were still asking questions. Such as: who did, what is that, when did that happen, where does that come from, why is it that way, and how come? Asking these questions is how we learned what we learned to get to who and where we are today. Many of us go about life ignoring that curious child inside us. Maybe it's because at some time we were told we ask too many questions. Possibly it's because we feel we don't have time to find out in our busy adult lives. Perhaps it's because we appear childish for asking such questions. Or some of us, consciously or subconsciously, feel like we know enough to live life and no longer need to learn more. Whatever our reason may be, ultimately, we have made a choice to not make an effort to answer our inner questions. In my personal life, in many areas, I have started trying to answer the questions that come to mind. I let my "child" like mind ponder on the things that come to mind. If I can not deduce the answer, I go out in search of it. We live in a day and age where most of us have access to an unlimited and immediate source of answers and knowledge. This source is the internet. Now that being said, there is as much false information on the internet as there is accurate information. Be careful where you choose to find your answers. Do a little research and make sure you have the correct answer to your question from a reliable source. Another source of information is the library. In today's age, many of us forget about this source of knowledge that we have access to. Don't be afraid to think things out. Our minds are a powerful tool. You may be surprised at what you are capable of thinking out and answering on your own. Never be ashamed of the questions that come to mind. I would venture to say if we do not question, at least on some level, we don't learn anything. If you have a question, follow that thought, seek out the answer, and allow yourself to learn. For myself, allowing myself to chase down answers, or at least the process of trying, has been a wonderful experience, even stress relieving in many ways. Don't be afraid to try and get answers, and don't ignore the questions on your mind. I recently acquired the responsibility of teaching a kids Sunday School class at the church I am apart of. I was excited to be afforded such an opportunity. Even though I was, and still am, excited about teaching this class. I also realized the responsibility that comes with teaching. The thought of that can be scary.
My main concern about teaching the age group that I have is making sure, first and foremost, that the material I present the children with is accurate and understandable. I do not personally want to fall into teaching in such a way that would present a biased or self interpreted lesson (This usually occurs as a result of a lack of study.) Children understand more and think deeper than what they are sometimes accredited. You need to be prepared to answer some difficult and well thought out questions that they may ask. How then do we assure that we give an accurate answer to their questions without answering with personal bias and ideas? To avoid teaching my own ideas, or as I have heard some state, similar to the following "Now this is Brother Harvey speaking, not the Bible." I try to stay in the source material as much as possible. That source, in this case, is the Bible. Really this is a principle to follow when teaching anything. I study and research keywords in verses. This can be done by looking up root words and cross-referencing to gather the intended meaning rather than coming up with your own idea that sounds good. Do this so that when "tough" questions are asked, you can either directly answer or guide your student into learning the answer themselves. The latter being the preferred manner. The following is what I have come up with after some trial and error. The lesson is started by reading a passage of scripture. Then we go over a verse to focus on, defining the keywords in that verse with a Strong's Concordance. Next is an exercise used to cause the kids to interact with those definitions. The lesson then has questions from specific verses for the kids to answer. This causes them to go back to the reading and engage it. Then we read a summary of what the chapter was about and go over a memory verse to learn over the next week. I have found that this method keeps the kids engaged, they seem to enjoy the lessons and helps them with self-learning and self-thought. I'm still only getting started with teaching this class. I am sure I will continue to change and critique this method. As I do, I may post my changes to this site. Soon I am going to update my site to have a page of downloadable material that I have put together. If anyone reading this is interested or looking for material, maybe you'll like what I have and find it useful. What is it about life that makes things so seemingly complicated? Is it the multiple tasks and responsibilities we have to keep up with? Are we just run ragged and we don't seem to be able to handle it? In our minds, everything just seems so straightforward and simple, but when we then try to execute our tasks everything seems to just fall apart. Things don't necessarily go south all the time, but we have all been there. Why is life so dang hard?
What can we do about life being complicated and sometimes hard? Anything? Nothing? Something? Is there a magic formula we can buy, a book we can read, a hero or mentor to follow? Maybe if we just keep at it and survive, it will eventually get better? Maybe if we fake having everything together we can fool the people around us or may possibly even fool ourselves? There has to be a cure-all, right? These questions seem to be at the heart of everyone's mind. If not consistently or consciously maybe, at the least sometimes or subconsciously. Could the answer possibly be that we are focusing on the wrong side of things? What if instead of asking "Why did this bad thing happen?" or "Why is everything going so wrong?" we instead should possibly ask "Why did this good thing happen to me at this time?" or "At a previous time why did everything seem to go just right?" If we focus on why positive things happen to us, then maybe we can find a common denominator to replicate when things seem to be going downhill. This is not necessarily a complete or all-encompassing answer, but it has the potential to help. If we analyze the good times in our life with the same level of scrutiny that we look at our bad times with, just maybe we can find a commonality that we can replicate to assist with remedying the bad times when we experience them. Maybe we should ask ourselves, "What did I do to deserve this?" just as much when good things happen as when bad things happen. This was my thought for the day. For me at least, this is definitely something to ponder. Welcome to my website! You may be thinking, what is this? What is its purpose? Why do I want to read it? Well, this website is a blog. I may write about my latest adventures, challenges, tasks, studies, thoughts, or even about books that I may be working on. I hope you enjoy this website. Maybe you will even be able to learn along with me as I blog about the different challenges and experiences that I face.
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