Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - Brenda     

Astros, Hurricanes & Anne's Journal

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - Brenda     

Life, etc.....

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - Brenda     

Living a Life Filled with the Spirit

I’d like to begin my update with a powerfully inspiring quote I found in a book titled “The Power of a Positive Woman” by Karol Ladd. While this book is specifically targeted towards women, the quote is applicable to everyone and was originally written by Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch holocaust survivor who went on to find peace and healing from her experiences and helped bring the same to many of the other survivors. In talking about the connection between the potential our lives have and the power of God, she compared human beings to a glove, and said this: 

“The glove can do nothing. Oh but if my hand is in the glove, it can do many things…cook, play the piano, write. Well, you say that is not the glove,  that is the hand in the glove that does it. Yes, that is so. I tell you that we are nothing but gloves. The hand in the glove is the Holy Spirit of God. Can the glove do something if it is very near the hand? No! The glove must be filled with the hand to do the work. That is exactly the same for us: We must be filled with the Holy Spirit to do the work God has for us to do.” 

What an amazing inspiration! No wonder we get frustrated and tired in trying to be good, do what’s right, follow God’s will, etc… we can’t do it alone! As a matter of fact, if you are anything like me (especially during a busy semester), you get stressed out just trying to survive with the immense work load you have. We need God’s power to do everything we do – everything. I do not pretend to have learned that lesson absolutely and completely, but I believe God has been teaching me little by little. I used to always hear, “you need to be filled with the Spirit of God to live this life!” and I had no idea how to go about doing that. It was kind of like that verse that says “open your mouth wide and I will fill it,”  and I always heard it but never knew if that was literal (like I had to sit down and open my mouth wide and wait for something to happen) or in a spiritual sense, but I finally realized through experience and reading books written by people who had a close relationship with God and speaking to people with a close relationship with God that we can achieve that by constantly being in the presence of God. 

 By praying throughout the day as you do different activities and by making God a priority and including Him in your daily life we acknowledge our need for him. I’d be the first one to acknowledge that I struggle in consistency in keeping God a part of my daily life, but it is vital if we are to remain connected to God. 

May God give you and me the grace to remain filled with the Spirit of God to help us live a life pleasing to Him. 

Until Next Time.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - Brenda     

Joseph, First Day of Summer, In the News...

Before anything, congratulations to Anne and her husband on the upcoming new addition to her family! Children are certainly a blessing and I wish them the best. 

I can certainly say that children are amazing and fill our lives with joy as I have first-hand experience with my baby nephew, Joseph. At 7 months and 3 days, Joseph is starting to develop and display his likes and dislikes, and we can actually see his own personality starting to shine through. Among the things Joseph likes is holding on to anything he sees and putting his thumb in his mouth as he does so. This can include the t-shirts we are wearing as we are holding him, his burp cloth, our hair, etc. My favorite picture of him doing this is one time that I was just walking past his little stroller and all of the sudden I see this huge grin forming on his lips as he slowly reaches out, grabs my skirt and puts his thumb in his mouth.

Ah, babies are so beautiful and fun! 

In case anyone has not noticed yet, today is June 21, first day of summer. And those of us in the south think, wait a minute, I thought summer started in January and lasted until December? No, my dear friends, even though we have already experienced searing heat --that was not summer. It only gets worse ;) Take out that sun block and water and Gatorade and caps or umbrellas (if you are brave enough to do so) and enjoy this wonderful season. Hey, at least school is optional during the summer! Oh, and I’d like to point out something that I think some of you may find useful or to be of interest. The only season that needs to be capitalized is Fall to differentiate it from the verb “fall.” All of the other seasons do not need to be capitalized. So that’s my English tidbit for the day. 

I hope you all have a first great day of summer!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - Brenda     

Remembrance, Errol & Tessy's Wedding Pictures..

Before I go into my update, I would like to extend my condolences to the Morales family from New Jersey for the loss of their beloved son, brother, cousin, friend, and all Jacob was to all who knew him. Although I was not well acquainted with him these last years, I have memories of him from when we were children and it was a big shock to hear of his passing. Mere words cannot erase the pain of such a huge loss, but Sis Eva, Bro. Jimmy, Jessica, Tracy, Ashley, and the rest of the family, please know you are in my thoughts and prayers.

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Be sure to check out pictures from Errol & Tessy's Wedding!

1 week. 1 whole week. It’s been a full week of freedom!! God is so good. I never thought the end of the semester would arrive, but it is here to stay for about 2 months. The days seem to be going by so much more slowly because the pace of my life has been altered significantly. Not that I mind at all, of course. The only bad part about this whole change was that for a few days after school finished I would wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I was supposed to be writing a paper. Thankfully that malady lasted only a few days, and I am now over it.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - Brenda     

School, School, and then some more School

Definition of Cruel and Unusual torture: 1) the million papers students are required to write as the semester comes to an end; 2) the conspiracy in which teachers are involved to make all of the assignments due the same day; 3) what Brenda just went through and is going through right now;  

My, my, I must say I am quite impressed with how accurate my definition is. I believe this is what some of you are going through as well. But the worst thing about the whole matter is that I am also doing the same thing to my students.  But I tell them that I’m the one who will get the worst end of the deal because I have to read all of their papers (ranging from about 100-140 pages in total) and grade them. So maybe that is a comfort. My teachers will be miserable as well. Hmm. That’s not such a bad thought after all ;) 

But on the bright side of things, last weekend Tessy and Errol were married! For those who do not know them, their engagement pictures are posted up so you can see them there. The bride and groom looked spectacular and extremely happy. I hope we’ll be having some pictures soon. 

Okay, next item on the agenda –hyphens. Binu, I’m sorry for not having responded to your question sooner due to my busy schedule. I decided this would be good for everyone who is having to write papers right now and is confused on when to use hyphens or dashes.  

Hyphens and dashes are two distinct punctuation marks, terms most people, including myself, tend to use interchangeably. According to Broadview: The Guide to Writing by Doug Babington and Don LePan, hyphens are used to separate two parts of a compound word and to break a word at the end of a line if there is not enough space. Examples would include words like tax-free, hand-operated, etc.  

Dashes are used similarly to parentheses to set off and idea within a sentence, and they can also be used in place of a colon to set off a word or phrase at the end of the sentence. 

As far as my opinion on the matter goes, I find that dashes are a little bit more exciting because they set off ideas in a way that parentheses are not able to. I tend to think that dashes should be used sparingly because they are supposed to create an effect. I hope that helps! 

Okay, and now to end with this wonderful quote I read in The Mystery of God’s Will, a book written by Charles Swindoll: 

“Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now”

- Elisabeth Elliot. 

Until Next time.

Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - Brenda     

Anne's Journal has been updated, Click Here to read.

How many of you knew that encouraging people is something we as Christians are called to do? I had read that in the Bible before, but it never really hit me until this past Sunday when I was flipping through my Bible during the service and I saw a verse I had highlighted some time ago. It is Hebrews 3:13 from the NIV translation, and it says, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Now, I'm not sure what the relationship is between encouraging and the prevention of being hardened by sin's deceitfulness, but that part that really struck me was the one that said, "Encourage one another daily." Daily. Wow, that is amazing. I like to think that by nature I am kind of nice and like to say nice things to people, but I have seen countless examples of myself saying things that break people down instead of encouraging them. And even if I am not hurting people with my words, that is not necessarily enough.  We are called to live out our faith actively and go out and say things that are encouraging. We should have a daily habit of actively finding ways to encourage people.

In the spirit of the day and in order to walk the talk, here is an encouragement for you. The following was written by a friend, and it touched my heart and encouraged me so much that I had tears in my eyes. I'd like to know if it was a blessing for you as well.

"Jesus, you are my closest friend and companion in this life and the life to come. Your extravagant love has captivated my heart and I am drawn by your merciful chords to your very own glorious presence. May your light reflect and change my disfigured character that the sweet fragrance of your humility and purity will emanate to others around. My precious friend and Savior, hold my hand and lead me through the dark valleys and fearful mountains to the beautiful kingdom shore. Destroy the factory in my heart that relentlessly produces idols that I worship daily. Lord, forgive me, cleanse, sanctify, and transform me. I love you, so therefore at thy feet my love I pour as an offering of the gratitude of your sacrifice. I give my all into your hands."

Until Next Time.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - Brenda     

Anne's Journal has been updated, Click Here to read.

Happy b-day to my good buddy, Joyce Titus, and happy b-lated Valentine's day everyone! Not that I'm an endorser of this particular holiday or any in particular for that matter, but since it exists, I find it a useful time to receive chocolate and the occasional flowers. For your information, on valentine's day I accept milk chocolate, especially the type that has caramel in it. As a matter of fact, I'll take caramel filled chocolate any day ;) (I'd really rather not knowingly clog my arteries, thank you very much) But all jesting aside, I hope all of you had a great day yesterday, and I hope you have a great day today, and tomorrow, etc, etc, etc. And it's caramel filled chocolate in case you forgot. Thank you.

As far as my day went yesterday, there was no candlelit dinner for me. Instead my evening was spent in a starkly lit room trying to fill out a form with the heading that read "Test," trying to fill it out with all the information my brain could hold of phonology. Phonology, for those of you who care to know, is basically the study of linguistically significant sounds, and for the test we had to learn all of these crazy looking symbols that each denote a sound made in all of the languages in the world. Fun.

It actually wasn't that bad except for a little incident that happened along with it. I left my house in time for my test which was supposed to begin at 4:30. I got to the door of my class at 4:25, sighing in relief that I had gotten there 5 minutes early. I walked in and was extremely perplexed that all of my classmates were in there taking the exam already. What were they doing there so early, I wondered. After getting my test from the teacher and receiving somewhat of a dirty look, I went back to my desk and realized that I had made a small miscalculation. The test was supposed to begin at 4, not 4:30. So much for being there 5 minutes early. Well, if anything this helps me empathize more with my students when they are late for class.

And to conclude my ranting, or as our dear webmaster, Benj, would say, my random musings, I'd like give you a meaningful quote I read in a book:

Success is never final. Failure is Never Permanent.
Dr. James Friedberg

Think about that one.
Until Next Time.

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - Brenda     

Anne's Journal has been updated, Click Here to read.

Jeremiah 44: 17, 18

We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our king and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.

But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.

I don’t know how many of you have gone through this type of experience –I know I have gone through this sometimes. Trying to get back on track in making God #1 in my life, consistently praying, reading my Bible, doing all the “right things,” and everything goes all wrong. When I do my own thing everything seems to be working okay, but then I give the Lord control and things just seem to be in a state of chaos. While this may not be the case all of the time, the times that it does happen is enough to discourage us in our walk with Jesus and we feel forced to take back control of our lives and boot Him from the throne

This is exactly what happened with the children of Judah in the time of Jeremiah. They had stopped worshipping the Queen of Heaven, expecting that now God would bless them, but instead they had famine, captivity, desolation, etc, and were now questioning their decision to serve God. What they didn’t realize is that it was due to their idolatry that they were in the state they were in, not as a result of them turning back to God (Jeremiah 44: 23).

Sometimes we go through that as well in our lives. When we turn back to God, He is pleased with that, but that does not always erase the consequences that follow as a result of sin and other bad influences we have allowed in our lives in times past. The process we go through when we return to God can be painful and extremely confusing. So if you’re going through a time such as this, don’t give up and go back to whatever your “Queen of Heaven” may be –you may actually have to go through this phase all over when you return to the Lord once again. Keep your chin up and remember that this too shall pass, and that things will get better.

Until Next Time.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - Brenda     

First off, Anne's Journal has been updated, Click Here to read.