Stuff That Matters in Life

Katy’s Weblog

In the book of Matthew in the Bible, chapter 8 recorded the well-known event of Jesus calming the storm.

The disciples were in the boat with Jesus when a violent storm kicked up. Much to the disciples’Â irritation, Jesus was asleep. The disciples called, “Save us, Lord! We’re going to drown!”

Read more of “Expectations”

When my children ask me to buy them something, I hope they know me well enough to ask me for something that they know I would approve of. I hope they don’t ask me to buy them a video game rated “mature”, or an outrageously risqué outfit.

I hope my children understand who I am and what I stand for. In not asking for what I don’t approve of, as well in knowing to ask for what I would approve of,  they are choosing to pattern after my values.

In the same way, when the Bible says to pray according to God’s will, I think God desires us to understand him and what he stands for. And when we do, we will ask what he approves of, and are choosing to pattern our lives after what He wants for us.

Prayer is not just to get something from God. In the process of prayer, we learn to know God, who He is, what he stands for, and what he wants for us.

That is how we can get to know an invisible God.

(BTW, if I ever write my book “Everything I know about God I learned from my kids” that has been in my mind for 10 years, this post will be in there.)

Back when I was in grad school some 25 years ago, my friends and I began “typing” each other with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. We would all refer to the book “Please Understand Me” to try to understand each other’s personalities, but more often to use it to point out each other’s idiosyncrasies. “Oh, you are such an ‘F’ …!” when one of us is acting emotionally.

Read more of “Accepting one another”

I had the opportunity to present 2 workshops to parents this past Saturday.

Talking to other parents to share my experiences as a parent and knowledge that I’ve learned from my studies is something that I’ve been wanting to do. I’ve been looking for more opportunities to do workshops like this.

When I had 40 parents in front of me, I felt very humbled.  They’ve taken a few hours out of their lives on a Saturday to come to me to give them answers to their problems. Will my information be useful? Will I be able to help them be better parents? Can I make a difference in bettering their family life?

At the end when I looked at the evaluations, I was gratified that everyone gave me positive reviews on their feedback form. 100% of the responses said they would want to take another workshop from me. They didn’t think it was a complete waste of their time. 🙂

While giving workshops – a one-shot, shotgun approach – is fun, there just isn’t enough time nor is it the type of setting that can address people’s individual needs.

But I am glad to have some influence on parents no matter how big or little. I met some very nice people too.

What do you do when you experience personal pain in your life? What if you were going through a personal crisis – depression, deep anger and bitterness, struggle with a sin, hurt, lost of your faith? Do you have friends and family with whom you can be totally honest? Can you tell anyone what you are going through?

I hope so. I think I am fortunate to have a couple of friends that I can go to. I have confidence that they will not judge me, will still love, will not talk behind my back, and will not give up hope on me.

I hope that someone sees me as a friend that way.

Books I read

Filed under Generalby Joyful

A few books I read in the past couple of months that I have not recorded here:

Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card – Absolutely the last of the series I am going to read. I think I’ve read them all now.

Heaven by Randy Alcorn – A hefty book. Some parts were really good, some parts I merely skimmed. I’ll have to go back and read it again. It gave me a fresh look at heaven. I am getting closer there every day…

Have a New Kid by Friday by Kevin Leman – I like to listen to him ie when he is interviewed on Focus on the Family, and his writing is good too. He’s very engaging and practical. I’ve read so many parenting books that nothing is new to me anymore. But still he had very good ideas. If you haven’t read his Birth Order book, you should. It’ll give you some understanding into your personality.

“Hey, what’s that?” My husband suddenly noticed the Pokemon writing decorations on our living room wall…ummm, they’ve been there for the last 5 days. And these are not little decorations. They are about one foot high, stretches about 5 feet across, tacked on the front wall immediately facing you when you enter the room. And he’s been going into that room everyday, several times a day, day in and day out, since those decorations has been up. And 5 days later he noticed! Amazing!

And I wonder why he doesn’t notice when I get a hair cut!

I am actually very thankful that my husband doesn’t notice things. I rather him be oblivious then knitpick every little things. That would drive me nuts because I am not a detailed person. I dated someone who noticed everything. At first I thought it was nice that he noticed the way I’m dress or my hair cut. But he would also notice every little flaw, and was hypercritical.

There is a good and bad side to every trait. So look at the other side of the coin before you think the grass is greener on the other side.

I was a substitute today for 7th grade social studies.

In the beginning of each class, I gave very explicit instructions, wrote it in red on the board, telling the students not to write on the worksheet. The answers are to be written on a separate piece of paper. I made sure everyone was looking up at me when I was talking.

Wouldn’t you know it, there was one in EVERY class that did not follow instructions and wrote on the worksheet…Is there a law to this? The Law of the Out to Lunch Kid.