Author Archives: MzEllen

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HENDERSONVILLE — Joshua Jackson Reeves, four days old, slept undisturbed Monday afternoon in his mother's arms, blissfully unaware of war, or a city called Baghdad, or his mother's shattered heart.

Leslie Reeves, gently traced her baby's chin, a miniature version of another's chin, and smiled through wet eyes.

On Friday, Mrs. Reeves delivered her seven-pound, 14-ounce boy into this world without complications. Soon afterward she phoned Iraq to deliver the happy news. There, Spc. Joshua H. Reeves, her soldier-husband of two years, was stationed with troops from Fort Riley, Kan.

He was due to come home in November for two weeks of vacation from war.

One day's joy turned to sorrow on Saturday as a bomb detonated as Joshua Reeves' Humvee drove down a Baghdad street. Leslie Reeves, a Hendersonville native who had returned to be with her parents while she delivered, was still in the hospital with her new baby when she learned she was a widow.

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John Piper's son, Abraham and his wife, Molly lost their baby, Felicity.

In the hopes that you will pray for us, I’ll give you the news about Abraham’s daughter. Abraham is my son who serves as the Web Content Manager for Desiring God. He and Molly were expecting their second child on Sunday, September 23. Molly was big and healthy. Everyone was happy and excited about Orison’s little sister.

There had been no movement since Thursday. Molly had read this was nothing unusual, but the doctor said she could come for a check-up if she wished. Saturday morning (September 22) they went to Hennepin County Medical Center. No heart beat. Ultrasound confirms: the baby is dead

Please join in prayer for this family.

My friend, Phil asked me to look at the Scripture references that Piper cited and asked (since I also lost a child in this way - but earlier) if he did and said the right thing.

In situations like this, who you are talking to could change how you approach them. I can only assume that since Piper is "dad" to this couple, he knows them well enough to know what it is that they will need at this time. I would comfort a strong believing couple differently than I would new believers and I'd comfort believers differently than unbelievers.

In this case, I believe that believing couples can find comfort in all of these passages,, although there are certainly better passages to use than the 2 Samuel passage - I would most likely NOT have used that (not criticizing - John Piper is a man who is grieving and doing the best that he can).

2 Samuel 12:15-23 - this is the passages that tells us about when David lost his son. He fasted and prayed until the child was dead, and then he got up and ate. The reason that I would not have used this passage is that I believe the message is not that "life will go on", but rather that the child was taken as punishment from God. David had hoped to bring God's mercy by fasting and praying, but when the child died, David took the punishment as righteous.

If a person has done nothing wrong, there is no reason to add guilt; but if they have, this passage gives hope of seeing them again.

John 9:1-3 - This is a good passage - a reminder that we live in a lost and dying world - all of our existence is intended to bring glory to God and that (although sometimes these things can be traced back to our actions) many times there is nothing we could have done (or not done) to change the outcome. The thought that it is "not our fault" can be very comforting.

1 Corinthians 15:58 - Keep on keeping on - our labor is not in vain. I understand this, but...

These are passages that I would use, and have used:

Isaiah 53: 3-4
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

Christ knows what grief is about - and if we put our burdens onto Him, He will help us to bear them.

John 11:35

Jesus wept.

The shortest verse in the Bible - and for me, one of the most meaningful. Lazarus was dead and his sisters were grieving. Jesus knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet He wept.

Why? Because His friends were hurting. In the same way, He sees our grief and pain - and weeps along with us.

Romans 12:15

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Know - KNOW that you have an entire church family who is ready to stand with you, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart and weep with you.

Know this. My prayers are with you.

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For one of my classes (Educational Psychology) we have to read an article each week and write a paper on it.  This week, the article is: "The New First Grade:  Too Much Too Soon?"

Too Much Too Soon?

Are we asking too much of our students, too soon? At what cost? I believe that we are; or at least asking too much of the wrong thing. At earlier ages, a child’s world fuels curiosity; curiosity fuels experimentation, experimentation fuels learning.

Rote learning (including the rote learning of sight words) leaves little room for natural curiosity within that teaching method. Yes – a child can learn that “b” + “at” reads “bat” – but this is like teaching them to play Beethoven without letting them first listen to the music. With the emphasis on “reading at grade level”, there is also an emphasis on “seat work”, and seat work does not fuel curiosity. Life fuels curiosity.

I recently read an article about a school called “waldkindergarten” – or “forest school”. Originating in Scandinavia, the schools I have read the most about are in Germany, and most of the websites are in German. The basic concept is a “school without walls.

This type of school uses a child’s inner curiosity and need for movement to teach them about nature, science, natural consequences, physical education, and more. It does this while improving gross motor skills, logic skills, and awareness of the world around them. Waldkindergartens believe that a child who is able to build on the foundation of motor development is better able to manage his or her own body.

Being able to manage his own body enables a child to recognise and use shapes, signs, deal with quantities and abstract numbers. Only a child that has learned to orient himself in play and experience can bring this orientation to paper or on a blackboard.

Just like in any other kindergarten, we offer paper, pencils, paint, brushes and scissors, and teach the children how to use them. Children who were able to run around and let off steam in kindergarten are able to sit still and concentrate later in school, as they have learned to occupy themselves with simple things and with few distractions in nature.

Children who have mastered day-to-day life in the forest, together with other difficult situations, and have learned to make arrangements and stick to them have gained social skills for living and working together. Skills that are not only valuable at school.

http://www.zipfelmuetzen-walldorf.de/waldkindergarten.php?lang=en )

In this type of school, children are learning. They are learning about the world around them, they are learning about “how stuff works”, they are learning about the limits of their own abilities.

Incidentally, this pressure for “too much too soon” is demanded by standardized, high-stakes testing. What do the Germans call this testing? Amerikanische Prffung (American tests). Whether or not high-pressure performance in first grade leads to better learning in high school and beyond really remains to be seen. But for those children who “make the cut” in kindergarten, childhood is lost forever.

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This is cross-posted at Laced With Grace.

I had a good day at work; my dad has told me many times that it is a privilege for a person to have a job that they like. I am blessed - I don't like my job; I love it.

I'm working with yet another different level of population this year. This is my first permanent assignment in a POHI classroom. POHI = Physically and Otherwise Health Impaired. Among the impairments, CP, birth injuries, pre-birth injuries, traumatic brain injury, down syndrome, autism, vision impairments, sickle cell anemia and a general description of "cognitively impaired".

I cannot describe the range of emotions that I feel when I work with these wonderful, gentle people. I know that there are many "at-risk" populations, but the people that I'm working with this year are fragile in many ways. They are not only physically fragile (with the lowered life expectancy that comes along with that fragility), they are emotionally and mentally at risk as well.

Sometimes I want to cry - could this have been prevented somehow? (in the case of birth injuries, this is a very real question) . How can I help? Should I help? Or will my helping come with the penalty of the loss of muscle tone?

But most importantly, how do I relate to all of these people, as I see them as God's children?

Kindness (being nice) tells me that I should "do" for them. Love dictates that I make them work to keep what they have. Love touches my heart and tells me to be gentle, and it strengthens my heart and tells me to be firm.

Love allows me to see them as people - yet forever children.
Sometimes, in my spiritual walk, I feel as though I'm "stuck" in that childhood. Always in need of something. Needing help, yet needing to work it out for myself.

My struggles, although different, allow me to feel love for that person in the wheelchair, doing her "laps" around the edge of the work floor (we are a sheltered workshop).

Matthew 25:45 Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' (ESV)