He Holds Us by the Hand

"Our steps are made firm by the LORD,
when he delights in our way;
though we stumble, we shall
not fall headlong,
for the LORD holds us by the
hand."
Psalm 37:23-24 NRSV

Worry

Last Sunday my pastor preached on Matthew 6:25-34. The gist of his sermon was that we should not worry. We should remember that God is in the details of life taking care of us.

I have a question. What is worry, and how does one avoid it? Sure, I know by experience what it is, but I need words. Help me to define the term and explain to me how NOT to do it. (It comes so naturally to me.)

The Light of Christmas

I am getting slightly ahead of myself, skipping Thanksgiving, moving on to Christmas, but this year I am co-coordinator for a grand celebration, "Christmas at the Academy", at The King's Academy in Seymour, Tennessee, December 15 and 16 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. All are invited to drive-thru and enjoy the lights of the season and "Joy to the World." Because of this, my mind is on Christmas a bit early this year, . . . but why not celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas every day of the year?

Light . . . That’s what Christmas means to me. Light. Even in childhood, Christmas had that magical twinkly-ness about it. It wasn’t just the magic of Santa Claus, though, or the magic of presents for me under the twinkly tree. No, the true magic was that God, the Son, left the glories of heaven to enter the darkness of a fallen world for the purpose of bringing us light.

Although the Old Masters usually depict Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus with glowing auras, I don’t believe human eyes saw any unusual light in the stable the night that Jesus was born. But, in the field where humble shepherds watched over the sacrificial lambs, there was a great light as an angel of the LORD announced that the Savior, the Messiah, the Promised One had come. Heaven couldn’t contain the rejoicing angels as they burst into praise.

Then there was the light of an unusually bright star guiding the wise men to the humble home of the new King. Another light.

The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The Light of the world is Jesus.

Some years ago, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I received a lesson on light. I was returning from delivering my daughter back to Carson-Newman College. I always felt gloomy on that return trip, but I was especially glum that day, feeling the weight of my inadequacies and mediocrity. I was feeling as ugly as the black telephone wires which scribble across the East Tennessee landscape, marring the beauty.

I turned on to Highway 11E and was suddenly amazed to see the setting sun reflecting off of those same ugly telephone wires, lighting them up like strings of Christmas lights stretching on for miles. Jefferson City couldn’t have been more beautiful in that instant. It seemed God whispered to me, “See, even common things are glorious when they reflect my light.”

Then it dawned on me: I am mediocre and common, but if I reflect the “Son-light” of His love, I can light my world, too.

The whole trip home that day was a study in light. Signs reflected the light. The muddy brown Holston River was blinding in the radiance of reflected light. Even the shattered glass and shards of plastic from recent fender benders shone like jewels on the pavement.

With the setting sun, the light faded and the brilliance was gone, and I realized that the beauty only lasts for as long as the light shines. But, the LORD seemed to remind me that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His light never fades. We can reflect His light and love as long as we are in a reflecting position.

The whole world is lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. We are blessed to be able to reflect His light as long as we remain in right relationship with Him. And, that is what Christmas means to me all year long.

Robins Taking a Bath

Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees, and the temperature is dropping, I am pausing to sit on the porch swing in my memory of a summer afternoon. This is what I saw:

Dip and splash and shake, shake, shake.
Dip and splash and shake, shake, shake.
A robin bathes in a puddle.
She stands in the middle.
She dips her red breast.
She shakes and flutters
And sits.

A passing car gives her a startle,
But when all is quiet, she returns to the puddle.
She sits.
She flutters, she shakes, shakes, shakes.

Along comes another robin to bathe in the puddle.
The first makes a fuss, but
Sharing is friendlier.
One dips and splashes and shakes, shakes, shakes
In the middle of the puddle.
The other paces by the side of the puddle.

They switch.
Dip and splash and shake, shake, shake.
One could wonder how she would bathe her back,
But with all that flapping,
She is showered and soaked.
She twitches, she preens.
She plunges her head into the puddle
and flaps some more.

Along comes a cardinal.
He thinks about a bath.
He touches his head to the ground
Once, twice, three times.
He hops and flies away,
And the robins take turns still.

Dip, splash, shake, shake, shake.
Wade in the water,
Plunge and shake.
Flutter, flutter,
Hop away.
Robins taking a bath.

On Second Thought . . .

Well, on second thought, perhaps I will not delete my blog, because then I wouldn't have a way to sign in to comment on some of your blogs. I don't want to be "anonymous." And, some of you don't take comments from non-bloggers. So, I may post occasionally, but I still can't keep up. Wishy-washy for good reason.

Signing off soon

This blogging has been fun, but I cannot keep up. As soon as I can save some of my work in another form, I plan on deleting Seedlings. Thank you for your interest and your comments. That is all for now.

Just Thinking

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted. I became discouraged with blogging, and I have been pursuing other interests. I am only posting this thought today because I need to put it into words to think about it myself. You may read it if you like, but be forewarned, it is not pretty or eloquent.

I was reading in Luke 3 this morning. It tells about John the Baptist's ministry, his announcement of the coming of the Messiah. He was preaching "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin." Every time I have read that in the past, I have pictured people going down into the baptismal waters to symbolize new life in Christ. Today when I read it, though, I pictured people immersed in repentance, acknowledging their sin, crying out to God for forgiveness and restoration, and making repentance, not a one-time event, but a lifestyle.

I'm not sure I do that. I know I am supposed to stay current in my confession, but I am not sure that I have ever seriously considered the necessity of it as being immersed in repentance. How do you do that?

As I read further, I immediately saw the need for an immersion of repentance in my life, too. John told the seeking crowd to be content, to share with others, to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Okay. I am not content. Contentment is not exactly a part of the American lifestyle that I am so content with. (Well, come to think of it, I don't know if I am really all that content with the American lifestyle, either.) I do not share as freely as I should.

So, I suppose this could be considered repentance, or at least the beginning of repentance. I acknowledge that I have sinned. Now I must figure out how to turn from my sin, and walk in the way of the Master. Hmmm . . .

Remember This?

Do you remember this? It was one of the triumphs of my life. Who would have ever thought that I would make my daughter's wedding cake? Simple pleasures.

Child Prodigy

I heard of Gabriela Montero on All Things Considered on NPR the other day. Her music is beautiful. Check it out on NPR.

Magic Bean Buyer taught me how to link! You can teach an old dog new tricks.

Death and New Life

Big!

They say it pays to increase your word power. Spending time with first graders, I learn the most unusual words. While taking my little ones to Music yesterday, G was telling me about T's house. She said, "T's room is never messy. You know why? She doesn't have any toys in her room. They are all in her playroom! She has about a million toys!" (T probably does.) Then she continued. "T's house is a really big house! It is three stories long! From the outside I didn't think it was that big, but then I went inside, and . . . it was GI-NORMOUS!"

Gi-normous: adj. gigantic and enormous.

A Tribute to My Mother

She never thought she’d amount to much.
She was a sickly child.
During her father’s military service,
She wore her shoes on the wrong feet,
And she posted a sign,
“Mad house”
For passing truckers to see,
All to her mother’s consternation.
When her left-handed mother
Complimented her acne-ridden daughter,
“You’d do very well if it weren’t for your face,”
She felt the pain
Of humanity.
She probably didn’t hear
The echoes her mother intended:
You have good features.
You have a beautiful figure.
Your personality is delightful.
You have poise and grace.
You are intelligent.
You are loved.
She never thought she’d amount to much.

But she inherited
Wisdom
And a love for people
From her father;
Poise and propriety
From her mother and older sister;
Playfulness and a love of story
From her little brother;
And they gave her a heart,
A heart for God,
Feet,
Strong legs,
And wings.
Then she found a gem of a life’s partner
And she flew
Like an eagle
With grace and beauty
All around the earth,
Leaving blessings of God’s love
Wherever she chose to light.

There is no voice
Like my mother’s voice.
In my terrors,
Her rich gentle voice
Reminds me of the
Presence of God
And my fears are calmed.
In my sadness and confusion,
Her voice soothes
And counsels,
Find rest, O my soul
In God alone.
In my joy,
Her laughter sparkles
And twinkles
Like fireworks glittering
In the night sky.
She plays,
She teases,
She laughs,
She listens,
She counsels,
She cries,
She prays,
She teaches,
Through it all,
She loves.

She never thought she’d amount to much,
But God gave her iridescent wings
And she flashes His glory everywhere she flies.

In her beautiful face
Shines the light of God.

Love and Marriage

Well, school has started. I have a delightful class of 16, I think. (One of them has already missed the first three days.) As usual, first graders display an interesting outlook on life.

On Orientation Day, I introduce myself and "my ways" to the children in my class while the parents eavesdrop. I was telling the children about my three children and their families. I mentioned that my middle son had recently become engaged. "Do you know what engaged means?" I asked them.

One little girl raised her hand to offer, "It means that he is starting school?"

"No," I answered. " It means that he has recently asked his girlfriend to marry him."

As the rest of the class shrieked and groaned , she expressed their thoughts by asking, "Ew! Did he kiss her? That is disgusting!

Although I am sure he did, I just answered, "Well, he didn't mention kissing her." I'll let the parents deal with the birds and the bees, if I can help it.

Trees

Treasure the trees.
They provide perches.
They protect, they purify,
They produce fresh air and shade
Keeping the pathway cool,
Contrasting with glorious sunlight,
Giving rest, refreshment, pleasure and purpose
To weary eyes, and lungs, and hearts.

Men with chainsaws
Think they are serving the people
By purging the planet of these giants.
Prepare the way for power!
Prepare the way for pavement!
Prepare the way for bigger and better palaces
In populating places!
Prepare the way for prosperity!
They are giving their all for prosperity, palaces, power,
Paper stacked in piles, filed in files.

O that they were preparing the way for the King.
When the King processes
He will peer into the restless desert light and ask,
“Where are all the trees I sent?”

JM - 7/19/2006
These photos were taken on our 29th wedding anniversary hike to Fall Creek Falls.

Kaleidescopic Origami

While we were at the beach for our family vacation, my mom introduced me to the art of teabag folding. It really has nothing to do with teabags. The lady who thought of it started with the paper from a teabag, but the only connection now is that the tiles that you fold are about the size of a teabag. You can print them from the Internet. My favorite site for the tiles is: http://teabagtiles.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk .

After you print the tiles, you cut them out and fold them with simple origami folds. Then, you glue eight of them together, and they turn out looking like little paper flowers, called medallions. My mom taught me how to mount the medallions on cards. They make very classy thank you notes, or cards of encouragement. I enjoy folding them in the car, while watching T.V., or while listening to people talk.

Pictured is a "cardfolio" that I made to stuff with cards and give as a gift. I though of Magic Bean Buyer when I made this. Do you like it?

Rest

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him." Psalm 62:5

As I read this verse, I thought of all the places we often go to find rest. Many times we plop down on the couch to veg out in front of the television. Sometimes we listen to our favorite music. We go for a walk. We seek out a friend to talk to. We go shopping. We piddle with a hobby. We read a book. We go to the mountains. We go to the beach. We go to the lake. There are many ways to seek rest, and some of them actually deliver.

When I veg in front of the television, I find that I really don't rest. I may be entertained, but television creates tension for me. Beautiful music, a walk, or a quiet beautiful spot with a good book are more likely to refresh and draw me to God.

So, I was wondering, how do you, Reader, find rest in God alone? Your experience can enrich my own. Please comment.

A Tribute to MY Dad

This is a tribute to my dad. I know it won't fit all dads, but I haven't experienced all dads. This is my experience of a dad, and I wanted to share it with you.


What is a Dad?

A dad is someone who loves your mother. Their love blossoms and grows to produce fruit, and you are born. Then, they are so pleased with the results that they give you sisters.

A dad is someone who reads to you when you’re a baby, and when you are a child, and who gives you provocative books when you are a teen, giving you a love for books and for thinking.

A dad is someone who works hard to provide for your needs. He provides for your wants, too. He brings you presents when he comes home from business trips. He stays up late on Christmas Eve to make sure your dreams come true. And, when you ask for more, he reaches for his wallet saying, “When it’s gone, it’s gone.”

A dad is someone who doesn’t want you to grow up to be an oddball, but who is willing to risk it to obey God. His obedience is a perfect model. He takes you on special outings, like on a cruise to a foreign home. His good choices change your life in glorious ways.

A dad is someone who makes sure that the background music in your life is beautiful. He brings you classical music and orchestral show tunes, and he makes sure each room in the house is filled with delightful music.

A dad is someone who willingly puts up with your teenage mood-swings. He cares enough to discipline you creatively. He dances a jig to celebrate your joys. He is there with an encouraging hug in your sorrows. He prays for you every day. When he is away, he brightens your day with humorous e-mails. It reminds you that he loves to laugh, even at his own jokes.

A dad is someone who tells you stories so you’ll know where you came from and where you are going. His best stories are God stories, and he tells them often and in many memorable ways so you won’t forget, and so you’ll remember to pass them on.

A dad is someone who loves you.

Memories

Ah, the joy of a carefree day on the beach! Can't you imagine the story that went with this castle I found? With pail and shovel in hand someone crossed the grassy dunes. They trudged through the hot dry sand feeling their shoes fill up with the tiny grains. They freed their toes and ran, squealing with delight, to the cooler damp sand to stake their claim and start digging their very own castle. Where else could they be king and make all the choices? Slathered in sunscreen, they dug and sculpted and shaped for hours, telling stories, laughing, taking an occasional dip in the ocean to cool off. At last, they got hungry, so they declared their castle complete. They packed up and left it for other travelers to enjoy. They left, knowing that their day's work wouldn't last through the dark night. When I saw their craftsmanship, with the sunset casting long shadows, I knew I would have to save it somehow, so I took a picture. But they will never know that the memory of their work lives on.

Matthew 7:24

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock." Matthew 7:24 NASB

I took these pictures on our beach vacation this summer. It is beautiful there, but I am glad I am only there for a week out of the year. I wouldn't want to live there. I don't think I could stand the tremors I would feel, inside and outside my body, when the winds of a hurricane blow through. It just doesn't make sense, to me, to live in stick houses on a skinny little sandbar off the coast. The rains come down, the floods come up, and the house on the sand . . . The beach is nice for a vacation. I love the sparkle of the summer sun on the ocean. But, give me the strength, and the trees, of the mountains.

Psalm 139:9

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

This promise encourages me. Many years ago it jumped out to touch me when my husband wanted to teach English in China. I was afraid to fly across the ocean, but this verse gave me the courage to agree to go on the trip. Sadly, we didn't get to go because of the Tieneman Square event.

Another opportunity to travel to the far side of the sea came in 2001. Three of the teachers from our school, my husband and myself included, took a group of middle schoolers to Korea. Again, this verse jumped out to reassure me. This time we got to go, and all was well. Oh, I worried a little on take-offs and landings, but my dad told me to trust my weight to the plane, so I trusted that God was holding that plane in his hand. A few times turbulence made me quip to God that he had rough hands. He took care of us, though. He guided me and his hand held me fast.

Psalm 46

I’m trying something new in my quiet times. I am writing down my thinking as I read the passage from the Bible. I use a double-entry format, like a steno pad, with the line down the middle. (I can't get the two-columned effect here.) I put the verse I’m commenting on to the left, and my thinking is recorded on the right. I am realizing that I think so much more clearly when I process my thoughts through my fingers.

Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.

A refuge, a safe place.
We need a refuge because of the trouble we have caused ourselves, by our sin. He is our refuge from the trouble we have caused ourselves. Ever present, He will never leave us nor forsake us. The thing about a refuge is that it doesn’t come to us. We must choose to go to the refuge.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah.

That sounds scary! In today’s world we hear of planes crashing into buildings, tsunamis, war, hurricanes, bird flu, terrorism. It is a terrifying world, but we can have the peace of a little child in her daddy’s strong arms. On this side we see surging waves crashing against rocks, splashing and foaming vehemently, but we can walk through the waves, through the quaking mountains, to abundant, eternal life and peace forevermore. On the other side we will be free from trouble. Our relationship with the Almighty will be perfectly restored. We will experience eternal light, eternal life.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

It seems to me that the psalmist is picturing us walking through the surging, foaming, splashing water to a bright and gloriously peaceful river and the city surrounding that river. I picture a light and quiet place with colors more vibrant than any we have ever experienced here in the shadowlands. The joy of it all, though, is that this is the City of God, and in that city we will see His face, look into His eyes. We can, because the effects of sin, the trouble, will be over, erased by His sacrifice. It will be so beautiful, complete and joyous that we will forget all the troubles that we clung to on this side.

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

On this side we still have the blessed promise of His presence. He is our safe place. He fights for us. He will win.

Why does it refer to Him as the God of Jacob? Jacob was a deceitful, cunning son of Isaac, brother to Esau, favorite of Rebekah. He fled from home because of his brother’s rage, after he tricked his brother out of the family blessing. He slept in the desert on a rock and dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven. He married, had 13 children, and from the line of his son, Judah, the Messiah was born. God reached out to a deceitful man and transformed him to make him the father of the One who came to restore abundant life to us.
The God of Jacob gives undeserved, but abundant, blessing. The God of Jacob initiates a restored relationship with each of us. The God of Jacob seeks reconciliation. The God of Jacob seeks us and is our place of protection. We are abundantly blessed.

Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of all the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.

This image troubled my peacekeeping heart until I realized that this side must be destroyed to rid us of the trouble wrought by sin in the world. I love this world, but not the trouble, not the sin, not the wars. This passage puts me in the fortress, the safe place, looking out. Outside we are surrounded by bows, swords and shields, the enemy. But, at the right time, the army of the enemy will totally disintegrate, like the army of Sauron when the ring was plunged into the lake of Mordor. Then, all will be made new.

Be still and know that I am God’; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

Stop fighting. Stop clinging to trouble. Stop fretting. Stop and know God. He is our refuge and strength, our Fortress. In him we will be restored. All nations, all the earth will someday exalt Him. In Him we are in a good place.

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Thinking about it I realize that we have nothing to fear with such a Savior and God. I didn’t notice the “selah” until the end. The psalmist tells us to stop and think about it. Stop and think about the troubles on earth. Stop and think about God’s perfect provision. Stop and think about how He reaches out to us as He did to Jacob. I think we have every reason to stop and give thanks.

Summer

Sigh! It is summer vacation, the delightful season of margins. There will be time to read books just for fun, to go on vacation, to spend time with family, to sleep late, and exercise, and time to just sit and think, if I have a mind to do so. I love the holidays of winter, the brilliant colors of fall, the warming and flowers of spring, but the margins of summer cause me to sigh deeply. Thank God for summer!
Photograph by: Dewitt Jones (Photographer for National Geographic Magazine)

Joy

For years and years I have been wondering why I, a Christian, didn't have more joy in my life. I treasure my relationship with the Lord Jesus. I am so blessed. Still I felt defeated and joyless. I am a fairly positive person, but too often I saw the half-empty glass. I wondered and wondered what was missing.

I think I have happened upon the answer. (Actually, I believe Someone has been answering my query for years and years, and I was just too clueless to understand.) A couple of weeks ago I was reading the Bible, I can't even remember what passage, and I suddenly realized that thankfulness is a crucial weapon in our arsenal against the enemy powers. Fiery arrows of doubt, despair, and complaining are slung at us constantly, all day, every day. For all those years, I was letting those arrows penetrate my flesh. What if we countered those arrows with thankfulness, instead?

I decided to try it. For the past two weeks I have been deliberately thanking God for the blessings in my life, one by one. Thank You for warm water in my shower. Thank You for my precious family. Thank You for giving me wisdom to guide that wayward child . . . Even when the arrows of doubt and fear came toward me, thank You for promising that You are always with me. Thank You for the promise of Your protection. Thank You for friends who will be honest with me. Thank You for birdsong that reminds me to be thankful.

What I am finding, and I have not yet arrived, is that when I replace my complaints about life with thankfulness, my misery is replaced by joy. I will keep experimenting with thankfulness! You try it too. Let me know what you observe.

Selah

I was reading Psalm 3 this morning. I noticed the word 'selah' three times. The footnote says that it is a word of uncertain meaning, but I remember someone telling me that it seems to be a term that indicates a musical interlude, a time to stop and think about it. Be still and know God.

My teacher husband, my teacher friends, and I have been noticing that the ability to be still and think about it is an ability that must be cultivated. With the distractions of media abounding around us and our young, selah is too often missing in our lives.

What do you do to "selah"?

Prayer Posture

Did you know that if you say “Let’s pray,” to a bunch of first graders sitting on the carpet, most, if not all, of them will curl up in little balls with their knees under them in the position of “lowly toads” (in the words of Prince in The King and I)? As far as I know, no one has ever told my first graders to assume this position. It just seems to feel right to them. I’ve been teaching first grade for nine years, and they have taken this humble posture ever since we have been sitting on the carpet for Bible-time. Do you think grown-ups would bow humbly like that if we were sitting on the floor to pray? Would our bones allow us to do so?

They impress me with this position, because, if you think about it, when we talk to God, we are, after all, speaking to the Creator, Sustainer of Life, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What better position should we take? He is worthy of that kind of honor and humility.

But when the children talk to Him, they do not cower before Him. They pour their hearts out to Him as one would speak to a father. They don’t seem to worry about how they word their prayers or whether they are asking correctly. They have complete confidence that He is hearing them, that He cares about anything they care about, and that He wants what is best for them. They lay their requests before Him in simple trust.

One of my favorite “Jesus episodes” is in Mark 10:12-14 when the disciples tried to prevent the children from bothering Jesus. Jesus rebuked them, saying, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

Jesus longs to have a that kind of pure relationship with each one of us. We can better grasp the essence of our relationship with the King of Kings, our Savior, by paying attention to the humility and faith of the little children around us.

Fortune Cookies

I don't enjoy cooking, so occasionally we order Chinese take-out after a busy day at work. We always order chicken fried rice, some egg rolls, and some kind of beef with vegetables that you layer on top of white rice. I don't know what it is called, because my husband always does the order. Each time, our meal is generously topped off with enough fortune cookies for each of us to have several. I am not generally superstitious, but it is just fun to break open the folded sugar wafer, take out the little slip of paper, and read what is inscribed there. We laugh at the way the fortunes match, or don't match, their recipients. Most of the time they are random meaningless predictions, but every now and then we will find a wise thought that causes us to stop and ponder.

My husband found this wisdom in a fortune cookie tonight. It isn't a fortune, but it is a very good thought. I believe it is worth pondering. It has nothing, and everything, to do with children. What do you think about this?

"There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes; it's what we do with them that is important."

Just a Soft Touch

An interesting thing happened in school yesterday. I was on my knees beside B, talking about his writing, when M, a precious little talker, famous for his charm and smiles, passed behind me. As he passed, he softly placed one hand on my shoulder for just a second, and moved on by. I continued talking to the boy at my side, but I glanced at M with a question on my face. He held up his right hand in a little wave.

“Do you need me, or were you just being affectionate?” I asked quietly.

His quiet answer matched my question. “Just being affectionate,” he said.

I returned one of his famous smiles and said a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

It was just a brief soft touch on my shoulder, but it encouraged me and has haunted me. How often do I think to reach out and encourage someone with a brief touch of affection? How often have I neglected those small opportunities?

Stop and Think About It

Sometimes it surprises a teacher when a student actually absorbs and practices the lesson. I love to teach reading. You see, reading is thinking. If my first graders can develop the strategies of great readers, they will be equipped to be great life-long thinkers. You may ask, what are the strategies of great readers? I'm glad you asked. According to Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman, the authors of Mosaic Of Thought-Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop, the strategies proficient readers use are:

• making connections, text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world
• making sensory images
• asking questions
• making inferences
• determining importance
• synthesizing
• using fix-up strategies when meaning breaks down.

Some may be amazed, but first graders, even while they are learning to "crack the code," can learn to use these strategies. I am learning to teach them how. And, even though I am convinced that they can, when it actually happens, I find myself delightfully surprised. A case in point:

Last Thursday I sat on the carpet beside one of my first grade boys with my 5x8 card poised to jot down my observations of his reading. He began reading. He read two pages slowly, but smoothly. Then he closed his book in his lap, and sat. He just sat there starring into thin air. I looked at him. He just sat.

Knowing this young man to be a hard worker, not one to take short-cuts, I questioned, "S, I know you are doing something important here. Can you tell me what you are doing?"

"I'm thinking," he responded.

Okay, I thought, I've been telling the class to stop and think about their reading after every few pages. Let's see what he's thinking.

"S," I prodded, "since I can't read your mind, can you talk to me about what you are thinking?"

"Well, it says that owls see by moonlight," he answered, "but I was wondering, if they see by the bright moonlight, why do they need such large eyes?"

As I said, it takes me off-guard when they show me their thinking skills. I'm not sure why. They do it often. "S," I encouraged, "What is your schema about that? What do you already know?"

He cocked his head to one side and pondered. Then his eyes lit up. "The moon doesn't always shine brightly! They need those big eyes for the times when the moon is not bright!"

Do you see what S did? He read the text. He asked a good question. At my prompt, he added his own knowledge to what the text said to make an inference, answering his own question. He is a first grader, in the process of learning to read, really read. I am his teacher, and I am surprised that he can do so much.

Remember Your Vows

Several years ago, early in the first grade year, one of my curious boys was eavesdropping on a conversation I was having with the Principal of our school. The Principal and I were talking about the vows from a coming wedding. We were comparing whether we had included the words "love, honor, and obey" in our own vows to our spouses. Ty overheard the conversation at the point where the Principal commented, "I don't even remember my vows." Having just learned about the importance of some such thing in reading, Ty exclaimed, "What? Mr. G doesn't remember his vows??? He doesn't know his vows? A-E-I-O-U!"

The Questions a Child Will Ask

I teach first grade in a small Southern town. One day at lunch, one of my co-workers, a very fit mother of seven, walked up to me at lunch. She had tears in her eyes and her face was red with laughter. She touched my elbow. "Who is that little girl at your table?" she asked pointing to a particular child.

"That is V." I answered. "Why?"

She swallowed her laughter. "I was at the salad bar just now, and V came up to me and said, 'Mrs. F, do you know how to belly-dance?'"

My mouth dropped open in disbelief. "What did you say?" I asked my friend.

Mrs. F answered, "I said, 'No, I don't. Then V looked up at me in all seriousness and said, 'Neither do I. You sure do have to use your tummy muscles, though!'"

The questions a child will ask!