A's

Daddy was back in the school this morning, snapping candid pictures in a few homerooms.  He managed to sneak this picture here of Madison.  Waiting for school to start, you can play games on the computers or read or in Madison's case, go through drills to see if you can memorize the key facts of a test that day.  These three are trying to make sure they got all the answers right.  By all accounts, they did.  Madison said she missed one answer, something we didn't see on the study sheet, so it's okay.  She was out of school when they went over this test, so everything she studied and learned was when we went over it at home.  That being said, we did a pretty good job - she got an A.

But this time of year always sneaks up on us.  She got her report card, and yes, she got all A's again.  She was just joking, but she sort of sighed and rolled her eyes, saying, "Yeah, honor roll again."  Daddy was so thrilled when he heard this at work.  Before going home, he got her a few LEGO Dimensions toys (Ghostbusters), as well as the soundtracks she's been anxious to have:  "High School Musical."  She now has all three of those soundtracks on her MP3 player.  We're really proud of her, and don't take it for granted at all!

She's doing things artistically too:  this morning, Daddy got to see her yearbook art for the upcoming annual.  Some of the pages of the yearbook will have her Dr. Seuss-inspired artwork in it, which is great.  Daddy got to see the cover as well, which looks fun.  It's "in-your-face" Dr. Seuss, which might not go over well with some, but we like it.  It's elementary school, and I don't even remember there being a yearbook at all for our school.

We finished the skits and music for this weekend at work, and we're pretty close to calling the new series in March "Legends."  It should be fun, with us doing two messages now.  Tonight for "study purposes," our family watched "Enchanted" once again, looking for age-appropriate Biblical lessons. The only thing I see at the moment is related to faith, hearing the right voices, and continuing to believe despite being hurt.  We'll see what develops - I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.

In the meantime, we were of course playing with Madison's new toys tonight.  She was quite happy to get those.  But we were quite happy to see another amazing report card.  It's funny to be thrilled with a report card when your grade drops a point in Science, but seriously, it was a 100 average before.  Now it's a 99 average.  Parents who nitpick about such things are a bit obsessed.  For example, the missed questions on today's test:  Daddy was testing Madison beforehand about the Roaring Twenties and World War I, and I know for a fact that Madison knows all there is to know about the historical implications, how things happened, why they happened, and what they all set up for sure.  If she misses a trivial pursuit question along the way, I'm okay with that.  The point is, she knows history, knows geography, and is doing so well with school right now.  And it's not that much work for her, or Daddy and Mommy either.  She's breezing through, and having a great time!

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 NIV

     There are places on this earth that no man has ever stepped. Link Sar is the name of a mountain in Pakistan, about 23,100 feet tall. Until 2015, no one had ever stepped foot on top of any part of this mountain. In that year, two intrepid climbers finally made their way to the top of the western peak. It was an amazing climb, and as far as anyone knows, these are the only two people to set foot up there. Ever!
     Perhaps that’s part of the appeal of climbing, getting so extremely far away from everyone and anything. You’re on your own up there, away from it all. Your focus is only on reaching some place higher, away from all the distractions of this world. Imagine being on top like that, looking over the beauty of God’s creation, quiet and still.
     In our Bibles, the Lord tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.” There’s power in getting away from all of the busy activities in life. There’s power in getting off of social media, turning off the television, and putting away the video games. There’s power in setting aside certain foods. There’s power in being still.
     When we’re still and quiet, alone with God, we can see the evidence of His work around us. Better still, we can hear His voice giving us guidance, comfort, and peace.
Sure, it takes a bit of time to get to that place where you’re alone with Him. And you may not know many others that are willing to go that far. But He’s there, waiting for you at the top, just hoping you’ll set aside all the busyness of life. You can do it. Come on up there above it all, have a seat beside Him, and just be still.