Job Please

Today I'm sitting at the house studying for my Praxis in one and a half weeks and looking for a job. School starts next week so that means my babysitting job will be over. Therefore, I need to find a part time job...but with no weekends or nights. Anyone have any thing??

Here's an article from Radiant that I read this morning thought I would share...kind of relevant in my life right now.


Lessons in Falling
By Elora Ramirez

I really need to learn how to keep my face out of a book while walking. It’s not a coincidence that my uncle used to call me 'Belle' from Beauty and the Beast; I always had my head in a book. That was when I was in elementary school, though. You would think that now that I am an adult I would have learned this valuable lesson.

Obviously, I haven’t.

Heading back from my classroom one day, I was really excited because I got the green light to purchase some vocabulary books for next year's students. As I was walking, I decided to peruse the textbook.

Oooh … grammar roots.

Fantastic!I brushed the hair out of my face with an annoying 'humph' and kept walking.

Holy cow! This curriculum has a test generator; that’s convenient.

'Hey, Mrs. Ramirez!'

I glanced up just in time to see a student of mine whizzing by. If I hadn’t heard this student, we may have collided in the middle of the parking lot. I smiled, waved, said “hello” and was on my merry way.

Man, there’s even a planning guide at the beginni-

You know in movies when time stops and everything goes in slow motion? That’s what happened here. I honestly can’t remember if my knee buckled, I tripped on a lone 4x4 (our school is under construction), or if I simply just bit the dust. Regardless, I quickly fell with the grace (and thud, most definitely) of a sumo wrestler.

I wish I could have sat on the ground for a moment to gather my thoughts, but I was too concerned with jumping up and taking a census whether or not anyone saw me. I rearranged my shirt that had conveniently turned itself into a crop top and my heart sank.

I hear footsteps …

Sure enough, a man dressed in business attire came sauntering around the cars with a slight smile on his face. I did what anyone would do. I laughed at myself.

'Yeah … I just bit it. That’s nice.' (Don’t be jealous, I’m not normally this suave.)

He did nothing except give me that corner of the eye glance with a slight smirk that oozes the attitude of 'I really don’t want to laugh, but I can’t help but smile, because, man, you are a real loon who obviously doesn’t know how to walk straight. '

Pssh ... Fine then. Don’t laugh. Ugh. Loser.

As I passed him with obvious distaste, I headed toward the side door where I pulled out my keys and entered into the hallway. I looked in the glass and could see his reflection behind me.

I hope you get stuck in a revolving door in the middle of Christmas season.

I opened the door with certain authority, held my head high and made my way back to a planning meeting. If I hadn’t said anything to the other teachers, no one would have known except for me, the business man and the security guard nonchalantly leaning on the brick wall. (Well, the teachers probably would have asked why there was dirt in the textbook, but I digress.)

When I thought about this situation later on, I realized it’s very comparable to my life at the moment. It’s so easy to get distracted. There have been many times that I have gone through my day-by-day routine, walking in a daze, not paying attention to my surroundings. It doesn’t take long for me to fall flat on my face. The only thing for me to do then is dust the dirt off, lick my wounds and move on.

Or is it?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Paul talks about this very issue in Philippians. The church of Philippi had become a little haughty. Successes, credentials, accomplishments, all of these held priority over a relationship with Christ.

I can hear Paul now: 'Don’t talk to me about history—my family is the tribe of Benjamin. Your zeal has nothing on mine—I was so zealous you could have called me the Pharisee’s Pharisee. I was so legalistic I killed Christians for believing in the blasphemous teachings of Jesus. But I was wrong. And so are you for focusing on these things.'

Focus. That is what Paul emphasizes. It’s all about focus. When we focus on the wrong thing—when we take our eyes off the prize—we quickly learn a lesson in priorities.

From the bottom, our successes don’t seem so important.

From the mud, our beauty doesn’t seem so priceless.

Looking at nothing, having everything doesn’t seem so encompassing.

However, if we have a goal, a finish line, our life is so much sweeter.