The Real Heros

To my friends in education:

"Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered. Many blame society's shortcomings on education. Too many people are looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock musicians, athletes, and models aren't heroes: they're celebrities.

Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn't make the news. There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes, child abuse, and crime in today's America. Education didn't create these problems but deals with them every day.

You want heroes?

Consider Dave Sanders, the schoolteacher shot to death while trying to shield his students from two youths on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life, along with 12 students, and other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood bath.

You want heroes?

Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, NC teacher, was moved by the plight of one of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant. So this woman told the family of a 14 year old boy that she would give him one of her kidneys. And she did. When they subsequently appeared together hugging on the Today Show, even Katie Couric was near tears.

You want heroes?

Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher. She not only made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the best out of every single child. One of her fellow teachers in San Jose, California said, "She could teach a rock to read." Suddenly she was stricken with Lou Gehrig's Disease which is always fatal, usually within five years. She asked to stay on the job.... and did. When her voice was affected she communicated by computer. Did she go home? Absolutely not! She is running two elementary school libraries! When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff and all the families that she had one last lesson to teach....that dying is part of living. Her colleagues named her Teacher of the Year.

You want heroes?

Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After he won the million dollars, a network film crew wanted to follow up to see how it had impacted his life. New Cars? Big new house?

Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. They explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their lives and that would not change. The community was both stunned and gratified.

You want heroes?

Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of his/her own money for student necessities...... workbooks, pencils..supplies kids had to have that could not afford. That's a lot of money from the pockets of the most poorly paid teachers in the industrial world.

Schools don't teach values? The critics are dead wrong.

Public education provides more Sunday School teachers than any other profession. The average teacher works more hours in nine months than the average 40-hour employee does in a year.

You want heroes?

For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the only hug they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst parenting in history. An Argyle, Texas kindergarten teacher hugs her little 5 and 6 year olds so much that both the boys and the girls run up and hug her when they see her in the hall, at the football games, or in the malls years later.

A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt to rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on her desk......one that said "I love you!". He said he'd never been told that at home. This is a constant in today's society......two million unwanted, unloved, abused children in the public schools, the only institution that takes them all in.

You want heroes?

Visit a special education class and watch the miracle of personal interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the dedication they witness. There is a sentence from an unnamed source which says: "We have been so eager to give our children what we didn't have that we have neglected to give them what we did have.

"What is it that our kids really need? What do they really want?

Math, science, and social studies are important, but children need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone to listen, and standards to live by. Teachers provide upright examples, the faith and assurance of responsible people.

You want heroes?

Then go down to your local school and see our real live heroes....the ones changing lives for the better each and every day!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And that's all I have to say about that."

Pick And Choose

I'm amazed at how people want to "pick and choose" the parts of the Bible that suit them. A movie was given a PG-13 rating not because of profanity but because the dialogue discussed God! Parents needed to be warned of this!? NBC has edited Veggie Tales to get rid of any religious language because that might unduly influence someone or offend them. (Amazing how they defend the right to show trash saying parents should monitor what their kids are watching. That the remote has an off button!) I heard on the radio that a female minister left a denomination because it taught against homosexuality saying "those scriptures really don't apply to today." I hear of people arguing against tithing because it is an "Old Testament" teaching. (What do they do with the seventh chapter of Hebrews?)

My question to people is how can you just pick and choose the parts you LIKE!? Can you remove the eggs from a cake once it has been baked? NO! If you don't like eggs or are allergic to them then you must not eat the cake! God inspired the entire Bible. Nowhere do I find that He says we only have to abide by the commandments or the passages that make us feel good! Nor does the Bible indicate that any part of it is merely for our reading pleasure!

What kind of society would we have if we got to pick and choose the laws we want to obey! "You know, I don't like that law against stealing. I really want that man's Beamer so I'll just steal it. My defense will be that that stealing law offends me."

This may seem ridiculous, but it is how we want to treat God's laws! No we can't pick and choose which laws of the land we want to obey and we CERTAINLY can't pick and choose which of God's laws we want to obey! It's all or nothing, folks. Your only choice is to accept it completely or reject God completely. Just remember that for every choice you make, there is a consequence.

The Name Game!

If you have seen The Dawg Howse recently, then you know about the quest for "What's in a name". In other words, why did you name your blog what you did. Here is my "why."

My name is not really Libby. It is a nickname my mother gave me ... I guess almost since birth! She had a little neighbor girl that had blonde hair and blue eyes whose family nicknamed Libby. She thought the girl and her name were really cute so tagged me with it. That's ok with me. My name is unique enough that I rarely meet someone else named Libby. If I'm in public, and someone yells Libby I can be pretty sure that I'M the Libby who should turn around and look.

The... err... side effect to my name, however, is that all through school I had the Libby's canned goods jingle sung every time I was introduced to someone. (If you're not old enough to remember, it went like this: Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label label label. You will like it, like it, like it on your table, table, table.) People were always sure they were the first to think of it. I just let them believe that.

Instead of getting ticked off about it, I decided to use it to my advantage. When introduced to someone who seems to be having difficulty with my name I will say, "You know. Like Libby's fruit cocktail?" They seem to never forget then.

Fruit cocktail seems to be a food that describes me anyway. I love bright colors and each scoop is different from the last so you're never quite sure what's coming next!

Kinda Puts Things Into Perspective

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky.

Makes you realize how insignificant we are compared to this universe God created yet he knows the number of hairs on our heads.

What If......

You could see your own funeral? How would you want it to turn out? What would you want people to say? How do you want to be remembered?

I attended the funeral....no... the celebration of the life of a wonderful woman today. Although I cried many tears, it was still a joyous occassion. The lives she touched. The smile she always wore. The love she always shared. She truly exemplified Christ in the life she lived. Every story, every song, every remembrance pointed to the joy she had and how she shared it with others. Even if one knew her for but a short time (as I did), you would immediately see Christ in the joy of her heart.

This funeral was very much like what I would want for my own. Celebrate for I have gone to a better place. Sing joyous songs unto the Lord for He is worthy. Dance for God's glory. Worship the Lord for who He is. But most of all, preach a message of salvation for those who may never darken the doors of a church. This could be the only time you have them as a captive audience.

Thank you, Margaret Loraine Karns (sp?), for the life you lived. It was and is an inspiration to all who knew you.

"So you've had a bad day. ..."

There is a joke in my family that you never want to go out to eat with me because something ALWAYS goes wrong. Tonight supported that theory.

I was going to grill ribs but needed charcoal so I went to the store to purchase it. When I got home I asked my son to start the fire. He got the grill ready and poured the charcoal in. Upon inquiring as to why it was taking so long I discovered he couldn't find the lighter fluid. Someone has put it away but no one seems to remember doing so. By this time we decided it was getting too late to cook so we went out to eat.

At the restaurant we ordered 2 pizzas and a calzone. When the pizzas came, the large was a medium and the medium was a large. Not a major issue but my daughter's calzone was non existent. We waited patiently. Finally the server comes over and tells us that another server mistakenly gave the calzone to someone else. It was the wrong kind so they had to start another one. We waited and we waited AND we waited some more. When the calzone finally arrived, the rest of us had finished eating AND it was chicken instead of steak!

Earlier I had gone to Lowe's regarding the door I had painted for my daughter's room. I waited about two weeks for that door. I painted it as described in the post "Yesterday". I had to sand and repaint some places where the cheap paint ran. I then carried the door to her room to be hung. My suspicions were correct. The door had been delivered slab length instead of finished length. In other words, they didn't take into account the length that the mounts for the top and bottom of the door would take up so it was too long. When they tried to reorder the door properly there were MORE difficulties. The system tried to charge me extra for a special order door!

The title of this blog actually comes from a song. I love the song that has this line. It was the theme song for youth camp this year. It talks about taking the bad and turning it around for the good. I could have just as easily titled this post "Blessings or Cursings".

My son remarked jokingly that "The curse of Mom has returned" when our order got so fouled up. I in turn replied, "But how many times have we gotten free meals as a result?" The family had to concede. Tonight was no different. They gave us our daughter's meal PLUS two free deserts!

Because of the mistake at Lowe's and because of my trouble they gave me the special order door at the standard door price AND gave me a 10% discount to boot!

So my question to you is this. Would you choose to avoid eating with me because chances are good your meal will be messed up or would you want to eat with me because you might get a bargain? :) In other words, do you see the blessings or the cursings in your circumstances?