I knew things in Bible class was going to be off to a bad start when the kids weren’t even paying attention to prayer requests. There were about a zillion different conversations going on at once.
One kid I noticed was very much involved in reading his youth directory during class. At one point he even wrote something in it. Since I was mildly curious and for the very fact that I’m the one who actually helped put together the directory, I asked to see it after class. He had written some insults next to another student’s picture in the directory. I gave the kid the whole spiel about “How would you like it if he did the same thing to your picture…” then sent him on his way.
Was I wrong to invade his privacy by asking to read what he wrote in his youth directory? Or was I playing the role of authority figure? In any case he might have gone home and scribbled out my picture too. But I’ve found that most of the time kids have a short memory and probably don’t care if I read what they wrote, especially if they did it publically while they were supposed to be following along with the Bible lesson.
Then again some could say in some cases I’m doing the same thing here. Or am I? In this journal I do write negative things about people who do things that anger me, yet most of the time I don’t reveal their name. Is this just a more sophisticated way of griping about others, rather than the elementary way of just writing insults about a peer in your own elementary school yearbook?
Usually if someone angers me enough for me to write about it, then they’ve crossed a line. And I usually try to explain why I’m angry.
I thought this story about Steve Flatt, president of Lipscomb University, swapping roles with a student was amusing. Picturing Steve Flatt doing janitor duties is priceless. However I’m not sure why it was significant that Flatt was wearing a SID T-shirt. None of this is important unless you’re a SID member.
John Testa, Elizabeth’s boyfriend, has written a short, but very honest story about her. Elizabeth died in 2001 after a battle with a brain tumor. The story is thought provoking and shows that he really did love her.