Lessons from Lauraland

I could say a lot of things about the way I feel right now, but I am getting tired of thinking and talking about this. Needless to say it is another sleepless, painful night and I am waiting and praying for the pain killers to kick back in. I have been thinking about Job a lot tonight. WBH and I taught the Job class at camp this summer. It is one of his favorite books of the Bible and one of my least favorite, though it contains my favorite verse: "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" or as the New Living Translation puts it, "God may kill me, but He's my only hope." Job 13:15 Here is my lesson moment, be careful what you ask for! Part of my problem with Job is that I could never understand his faith during it all. I mean when you read the story, you know what is going on from God's point of view. I think it is important to read the book from only Job's point of view too. He had no knowledge of God's deal with the Devil. He didn't kn...

Working with the parents of youth is as much a part of my job as working with the youth themselves. I often find myself in the middle of what are essentially "water-cooler" conversations with women and men that, while I nod and smile, I can't exactly relate with... or at least I couldn't until I got married. I am up past the time I wanted to be, with a huge headache, because my husband waited until about 2 hours ago to tell me he absolutely needed work clothes washed tonight. I had to smile because I was just with a group of parents today who were discussing the beginning of the new school year and some voiced comments about a return to their children doing nearly the same thing. "Mom, I have to have a dozen cookies for tomorrow," or new clothing, or have signed their parents up for something, or, my favorite, "Mom, I am supposed to bring a volcano tomorrow." lol The point is, in someways I don't think we ever grow up. :) But that isn't m...

I am a brand girl. That doesn't necessarily mean brand name, but when I find a brand I like of something, I stick with it and I am willing to try anything related. This is true in food, in products of all kinds, in curriculum for my Youth, and definitely in my internet life. I am a Google Girl. My homepage on my laptop, desktop, and work computer are all google. When I am on another computer, I will skip their search bars in favor of going to google to search there. Whenever I enter into some new addiction or area of interest on the internet, I tend to look to Google to make things easier. Google reader is my first stop each morning, even before I read my email. I glance through the top news, read my webcomics and glance through the updates from The Rachel Maddow Show and others. I also use Reader to follow my friends blogs, which I tend to read in marathons of blog reading as opposed to day by day.  Tonight, as I watch BBC World News on my local PBS seeing people...