Five Minute Friday: Reflect

Five Minute Fridays, a day I look so forward to because on Friday’s we silence the inner critic. The loudest of all naysayers. And on Fridays we remind ourselves that The Word is for us and loves us and welcomes us. Your words are safe here. January will kick off the forth year of Five Minute Fridays. I have been writing here for over a year and love it.  Lisa Jo can hardly believe that this has been building for three years. So in sticking with tradition we’ll be taking December off again – a quiet sabbatical. And we’ll be back to writing wild and free starting Friday January 3rd. 2014 holds so much promise. So many plans. A world of stories I can’t wait to share with you. If you want to check us out then click here and visit Lisa Jo's blog.  Maybe you will feel like joining us in 2014. I hope so.  Todays word is:

Reflect

This has been an interesting week.  It has been a week of quiet, silent, sad, funny, comforting, discomforting, and powerful reflections.  You see I hurt myself on Thanksgiving Day and spent Monday and Tuesday flat on my back....reflecting.  I was reflecting on why it was me who always seems to fall.  I was reflecting on the upcoming Christmas holidays.  I was reflecting on my life as a wife, mother, friend, pastor, pastor's wife....a whole lot of reflection going on.  I returned to school on Wednesday and found myself reflecting on me the teacher.  Thursday and Friday I attended the Alabama Education Association Delegate Assembly in Birmingham and found myself reflecting on what I would be doing when I retire in 2015.  Every piece of information/business that was brought up I hung on, deep in reflection on how it would affect me in the coming years.   While the Christmas Carols were sung I found myself reflecting on what my life was going to be like in 2014.....at 60.  As I reflected on Christmas past I could see my fathers face as he read The Christmas Story from the bible to me each Christmas and then read The Night Before Christmas.  I loved see my father's calloused hands open his worn bible to read me (us, before my brother died) two very important tales of the glorious holiday coming up.  I reflected on Christmas past with my own children and how I tried to make my own traditions with them.  I sat and reflected on the tiny white lights from the tree reflecting on their tiny faces as we placed our crèche under the tree and read The Night Before Christmas.  I reflected on Christmas past with Frank and our own special memories without small children in our house....just two grown-ups who are children at heart.  I reflected on Christmas present.  Who would have ever known that I would accept the call from God and become a pastor...ever?  If anyone had ever told me I would one day have my own church I would have laughed in their face.  I reflected on why it took me so long to give in to God.  I reflected on questions I had of why me?  Then last night I began to reflect on the life of a great man, Nelson Mandela.  He has always fascinated me and as a teacher his reflection on education has always made me wish I could make my students feel this way:  "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."  So, in finishing up my five minutes and my AEA Delegate Assembly I reflect on what kind of difference my life as a teacher has made in the lives of the students I have taught.    I also reflect on what kind of difference they have made on my life.