Uphill idealist

Image from Jennie Marsland's blog . What is the first thought that comes to your mind when someone says, "Excuse me, but could I have a word with you?" I waver somewhere between feeling like I'm about to be sent to the Principal's office and thinking that I must have missed doing something/or have done something I shouldn't have. Usually, the word part is the part of being corrected, criticized or sometimes even scolded. Why is it when most folks hear such a statement they assume that the word is going to be negative? What if words were more often used to build up, affirm and even be a source of positive redirection? How we speak, what we say, and how we say things to others is a great source of power and impact. Even the Bible has much to say about the way people speak to each other. Proverbs 15:4 ESV, says: " A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit." What we think about even has an impact on our attitudes and sp

A few weeks ago we rebooted our ongoing Confirmation classes by combining with three other Lutheran churches in the area and started using a new curriculum called "re:form". The curriculum included a always fun "anti-workbook", great interactive and creative discussion starters, a wonderful and funny (really) DVD series that the kids actually laugh with. So far, our group seems to like the classes really well. The facebook page for re:form had posted some images from their DVD series and I had told them the only thing I could see missing was having some more diversity for the characters. Since I left that comment, they invited me to draw and post a pic, and so I created and posted a pic of myself (a female youth minister) in the "re:form" style. What fun this "re:form" is... wow - this is fun!