Something is very wrong here. One cannot tell if she thinks the jelly looks good to eat...or the hands. This child is never coming to my house to play with my kids.
I was Poopsie Liverface and proud of it! How can you be an elementary school teacher surrounded by 6~11 year olds all day and not get kooked-out? Below is one of the many lessons I (the student) learned from my teachers (my students). Find your name and share....IF YOU DARE. Muhahaha...
Ok, here's how it works:
Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:
a = poopsie b = lumpy c = buttercup d = gadget e = crusty f = greasy g = fluffy h = cheeseball i = chim-chim j = stinky k = flunky l = boobie m = pinky n = zippy o = goober p = doofus q = slimy r = loopy s = snotty t = tootie u = dorkey v = squeezit w = oprah x = skipper y = dinky z = zsa-zsa
Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:
a = apple b = toilet c = giggle d = burger e = girdle f = barf g = lizard h = waffle i = cootie j = monkey k = potty l = liver m = banana n = rhino o = bubble p = hamster q = toad r = gizzard s = pizza t = gerbil u = chicken v = pickle w = chuckle x = tofu y = gorilla z = stinker
Use the fourth letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:
a = head b = mouth c = face d = nose e = tush f = breath g = pants h = shorts i = lips j = honker k = butt l = brain m = tushie n = chunks o = hiney p = biscuits q = toes r = buns s = fanny t = sniffer u = sprinkles v = kisser w = squirt x = humperdinck y = brains z = juice
We were shameless in Room 108 (my first homeroom class)! We were silly at times, and we knew it. Lots of laughs kept our hearts light, but plenty of love kept our feet on the ground.
*sniff*....My second ever edited video from the same Deep Calleth Deep conference in 2003. A wee bit longer with many more cuts. Boy, I was on a roll. :-)
The Holy Spirit continues to work, even today. Unbeknownst to many, the book of Acts is the only book of the bible that doesn't have an ending. Chew on that.
So my mother and I were watching the extended version of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King the other night. (She's so cool...watching one of my favorite movies of all time with me mums...haha!)
Majestic dialogue, fantastic imagery, and eternal themes of honor, courage, friendship, sacrifice, endurance, and the age old battle between good and evil all play out with vivid music and color in Mr. Jackson's 9 hour (*phew*) masterpiece. Although I am partial to fight scenes and war-themed films, one of my favorite (if not my favorite) scenes in Return of the King is after Frodo and Sam finally destroy the ring and have, not by choice but rather by circumstantial default, resigned themselves to death upon a lonely rock on the sides of volcanic Mordor. Surrounded by lava which, by their judgment would soon engulf them, they talk of the Shire and life before their terrific journey to do battle against the forces of evil. Their task now completed, they close their eyes and, major thumbs up to Peter Jackson(!), the scene fades to a black screen for about 6 seconds...very, very long and unsettling for the viewers. Then it fades back in to the same rock surrounded by lava with Frodo and Sam laid out on the rock. Off to the right out of bursting white clouds eagles fly in to rescue them with Gandalf riding one. They gently pick up the unaware Frodo and Sam and bring them to safety elsewhere. It is a satisfying scene, one of hope and faith that when a person has done all they know, with all the power they know, in the end they will survive even if not by their own will or power.
My heart leapt at that scene! How like we, the people of God, ought to have the courage and faith of these two little dudes on the side of a blown up volcano! Before they reached Mordor they, especially Sam, were certain they'd return home in a flash. But reaching the outer plains of that most wicked place they saw themselves walking to certain death. They still journeyed forward in spite of all the odds against them. (Deut 31:6) They had no idea of the struggles, the battles, the tears, and the overwhelming hopes that everyone else on the outside had for them. (1 Peter 5:9) It was pure faith and hope that kept both Frodo and Sam going and their friends (all the other good guys and gals in the movie) fighting. It was all for the same cause: to eliminate evil from the world.
The point here is simple: when all had been said and done and Frodo and Sam were on the brink of death, salvation came. They were borne on the "...wings of eagles..." (Isaiah 40:31) out of harms way. Had they given up, had they retreated in fear, had they wallowed in defeated thoughts and frustration I dare say they would have died before they ever reached the inside of Mordor. All would have been lost.
We must have the same fight in us, the same tenacity about our salvation, the same hope that in the end good will triumph over evil. Sam and Frodo had, at the last, given up their lives to the hot lava flowing around them. Yet they gave their all because of the cause they believed in. We have a greater cause: the redemption of mankind. (2 Corinth 5:18) We know the ending of our story....sweet and eternal victory! (Rev 22:12-14) How dare we even think to give in, to let go, to compromise, to entertain weak imaginations!
Alas, we, being human, do so, and this I personally know right well. :-( We may find ourselves many a day on the side of a volcano surrounded by situations so pressured that our daily lives become the great Struggle with moments of Freedom. (Psalm 69:1-3) We may find ourselves closing our eyes as the circumstances, the people, as our minds hem in on us. "I've done all I know to do, Lord. Oh Jesus, I can no more endure this! My heart and strength have fallen below where I cannot see. I shall lie here and wait for an end to come." But it isn't over. When a child of God does the work of their eternal Father, our Lord Jesus, the story is never over when we think. Nay, it is just beginning. (Gal 6:9) Do not lose heart! Do not give up! Do not stay your sword within your bosom! Take courage! Take hold of faith! Never, ever give up! Keep wielding your sword (the Word of God) with relentless fervor! Speak out the Word full of faith! Pray! Believe Jesus' words and promises for your life and the lives of those dear to you...and even those not dear! Become the change which you desire to see in the world! Become the sacrificial offering fit for the Master's use. Become that which you already are in the bosom of Christ....a fearless warrior prince or princess bound eternally to a fate of glorious habitation and reign in heaven with the only true God of this universe: Jesus Christ. Believe it...live it.
Fight for your King and Kinsman-redeemer who, through suffering, learned obedience and thus gained eternal victory for we, His children! (Hebrews 5:8) Fight for your family who presently may turn aside to false persuasions, but, as you rejoice in faith for their redemption, will soon see the light of Christ! (Matthew 5:16) Fight for your brothers and sisters in the Lord who, while they may not know your struggles as you journey to your "Mordor" play their much needed role as the body of Christ in this great battle that is called Life! (1 Corinth 12:12-27) Fight for your own soul which to this world may be as a vapor and passing folly, but Jesus is more precious than His own life! (John 3:16)
This war rally by Aragorn brought me to tears when I re-read it word for word:
"Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"
Re-written and re-morphed by db ;-)
"Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons and daughters of the Most High God, of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, my family. I see in your eyes the same fear that indeed takes the heart of me at times. A day may come when our courage fails, when we forsake our faith in the goodness of our Redeemer and follow our own devices, but it is not this day. A day may come when with furrowed eyebrows we wonder if God really cares of the very hairs of our head, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and forgotten dreams, of far off visions and cold love. A moment of ease in this battle of destiny, when our very breath of praise runs dry and our eyes dim in the grip of doubt, but it is not this day....
...THIS DAY WE FIGHT." And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. -Jesus (Luke 9:23) He fought and won. Let us follow in His footsteps. We cannot lose. The gates of hell will in no wise prevail against us. Fight, I say, fight!
Not the Lady of Perelandra, just a cool pic I found
The Lady of Perelandra is a depiction of another Eve on another planet in another creation story that parallels the biblical account of our own Eve, planet, and creation story. She, in C.S. Lewis’ mind, is the epitome of innocence, all that was before self-centeredness and willful disobedience molded our present world. That is all I will say about this most wonderful story I am in the midst of reading now lest I spoil it for those who dare tread its pages. A good read it is…C.S. Lewis is a wonderful theologian.
Some of her responses to the main character, Ransom, when he lands on “her” world, are to die for. Here we see a fallen, experienced human being talking with a woman – the Mother of the planet God (Maledil) has made – yet untouched by anything but the Good Lord’s goodness, love, and providence. That which was to be, in the plan of God talking with that which became, in the plan of man. Some of her conversations with him and another character, the Lord’s antithesis, Satan himself who also finds his way into “her” world, are very, very good. Excerpts:
EXCERPT #1: The Lady and Ransom (Piebald) “Perhaps my world is wrong about this,” said Ransom rather feebly, for he was dismayed at what he had done. “It is not so,” said she. “Maledil Himself has told me now. And it could not be so, if your world has no floating lands. But He is not telling me why He has forbidden it to us.” “There’s probably some good reason,” began Ransom, when he was interrupted by her sudden laughter. “Oh, Piebald, Piebald,” she said, still laughing. “How often the people of your race speak!” “I’m sorry,” said Ransom, a little put out. “What are you sorry for?” “I am sorry if you think I talk too much.” “Too much? How can I tell what would be too much for you to talk?”“In our world when they say a man talks much they mean they wish him to be silent.” “If that is what they mean, why do they not say it?” “What made you laugh?” asked Ransom, finding her question too hard. “I laughed, Piebald, because you were wondering, as I was, about this law which Maledil has made for one world and not for another. And you had nothing to say about it and yet made the nothing up into words.”
How often I do that…
EXCERPT #2: The Lady and Weston, presently inhabited by Satan (see Genesis 3:1-5 for parallels) “I am wondering,” said the woman’s voice, “whether all the people of your world have the habit of talking about the same thing more than once. I have said already that we are forbidden to dwell on the Fixed Land. Why do you not either talk of something else or stop talking?” “Because this forbidding is such a strange one,” said the Man’s (Weston’s) voice. “And so unlike the ways of Maledil in my world. And He has not forbidden you to think about dwelling on the Fixed land.” “That would be a strange thing – to think about what will never happen….this goes beyond all. Stepping out of what is into what might be and talking and making things out there…alongside the world.” …. “It is not from the making a story that I shrink back, O stranger, “she answered, “but from this one story that you have put into my head. I can make myself stories about my children of the King. I can make it that the fish fly and the land beasts swim. But if I try to make the story about living on the Fixed Island [which is forbidden by Maledil] I do not know how to make it about Maledil. For if I make it that He has changed His command, that will not go. And if I make it that we are living there against His command, that is like making the sky black and the water so that we cannot drink it and the air so that we cannot breathe it. But also, I do no see what is the pleasure of trying to make these things.” “To make you wiser, older,” said Weston’s body. “Do you know for certain that it will do that?” she asked. “Yes, for certain,” it replied. “That is how the women of my world have become so great and so beautiful.” “Do not listen to him,” broke in Ransom; “send him away. Do not hear what he says, do not think of it.” ----------------------------- One wonders if the Eve of our world had heeded those wise words of Ransom whether or not things would be different in our world today. Alas, such speculation is vain and pointless.
Would to God we all could heed those words. Therein lay our victory over our age old enemy.
For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ; and having readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2Co 10:4-6)
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jam 4:7)
A picture I took in St. Louis, Missouri (during a PAW convention) with a little point-n-shoot when I was...oh, about 14 years old. I think this is the photo that started my love for photography cause it's exactly how I remembered it...both in eye and in heart.
I love quotes. But it is good to run across some quotes with the context surrounding the creation of the quote itself. Some of my favorites follow.
"This isn't right, this isn't even wrong." - Wolfgang Pauli, upon reading a young physicist's paper
"We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees." -Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks (I'm sure they loved his strategy)
"Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done." - Carl Friedrich Gauss, while working when informed his wife was dying
"I don't feel good." - The last words of Luther Burbank (great lasts words for anyone I'd say...)
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953
