Gathering Graces 2/14/2018

*What a beautiful, snowy Valentine’s Day today.  I am a fan of the snow, so I love watching the snow fall, and cover the world in a blanket of white.

*When I arrived at work today, I realized I had not eaten breakfast.  I used to be a horrible breakfast eater.  Then I discovered this amazing steel cut oats and flaxseed instant oatmeal from Safeway, and now I have a bowl of it almost every morning, with a little pink Himalayan salt and real maple syrup on top.  And a cup of coffee with frothed milk on top.  But that did not happen this morning.  It could have been because my morning routine changed a bit this morning.  Since lent began today, Paul and I started a lenten devotional this morning, based on the book of Matthew, and that may have been part of the deal. 

*Despite the fact I didn’t have breakfast, it was a really great day today, and two students brought me Valentines.  Logan brought me a box of chocolates and a nice card, and Rylee brought me a little Valentine cake and a white rose.  I am sure going to miss these two next year!!

*Paul and I enjoyed Chinese food take out from Wah Hing tonight, and watched a couple episodes of The Crown.  It is so interesting learning about a person’s life who has been a part of my life ever since I was born.  There has always been Queen Elizabeth.  Paul also sang love songs to me at various times throughout the day when he would pop into my office.

*I got a very appropriate fortune from my cookie after dinner. I am working on making it come true this year.

*But it wasn’t all flowers, and hearts and chocolates today.  There was another school shooting today.  And, according to news reports, this is the eighth school shooting so far in the first seven weeks of 2018. What can I do?  What I do every day with the kids I work with at KHS.  Give them a smile.  Let them know they matter.  Let them know they have a purpose.  This is sharing God’s love with them.  I want them to know someone cares.

*As I reflect on the “day of love”, this is what love really means to me....

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.                  
I Corinthians 13: 4-13