Love is...

Valentine’s Day was quickly approaching and there was one activity I knew for sure that I wanted my first graders to do. Our February Bible verse has been “God is love” so one day, I sat with my kids at station time to ask them a question.

Here’s what I said: “What holiday is coming up?...Yes, Valentine’s Day! What is our verse this month?...Right! ‘God is love.’ But now I have a question for you. If God is love, what is ‘love?’ When we talk about love, what do you think of?”

Here are some of their answers with no additional prompting from me: 

Love is caring for others.

Love is Jesus in our hearts and dying on the cross for us. 

Love is Jesus in our hearts.

Love is kissing goodnight and caring for someone.

Love is peace and helping.

Love is being nice and helping others. 

Love is peace and caring for others and not looking in your own interest.

Love is helping someone. 

Love is being kind and sharing.

Love is sharing food.

Love is peace and helping.

Love is kisses and helping.

Love is Jesus in our hearts.

Love is kissing goodnight and Christ.

Love is true. It is helping others. 

Love is life and Christ.

Love is sharing and giving kisses goodnight.

Love is God loves us.

Love is giving pizza and sharing pizza and playing together.

Love is Jesus in our hearts, sharing, and Jesus loving the world. 

Love is protection and peace.

If God is love (1 John 4: 8) then God is... patient and kind...He keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, and rejoices with truth. God always protects, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13). 

                                                   

Beauty

Wow! I’ve been back home in Haiti for eight weeks now and I haven’t blogged once. Sorry about that!

First of all, I need to say a huge thank you to all of you who support me on a monthly basis and those who gave special gifts to get me here. I am happy to say that I am 100% funded until June of 2019! That means that any gifts given now help me stay here longer. J

Yesterday and today are Cowman's days of Fall Break and I had the oppurtunity to go on a long hike with a good group friends. It was beautiful and I wanted to share some of the beauty in my life with you. 

According to dictionary.com beauty is "the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether from sensory manifestations, a meaningful design, or something else." 

Here is where I find beauty in my life...

I find beauty in a classroom set up using hand-me-downs from my mom's old preschool and from special gifts from loving friends.

I find beauty in rehabilitation. 

I find beauty in a happy, loud, smart first grade classroom. 

I find beauty in birthdays. And lots of them!

I find beauty in God's protection from hurricanes. 

I find beauty in "Look Miss Kacie! Look what we made!" 

I find beauty in my girls who visit and help me whenever they can. 

I find beauty in my big kids helping my little kids learn to read. 

I find beauty in the sunrise.

I find beauty in nature. 

I find beauty in friends. 

I thank God for all of the beauty found in my life and for each of you that has helped me get this far. Thank you! ~