90 Day Challenge

Who was the teacher that changed your life?  I'm sure everyone has at least one!  I was blessed enough to have several.  Through the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs in my school district, I was exposed to many excellent teachers.  Even still, I find myself singing jingles when I write and referring to my mental catalogue from my ninth grade English class.  Ms. Burroughs.  Ms. Burroughs: the mysterious motorcycle riding spinster.  More rumors about her were whispered through the hallways than the most popular girl in our class.

Ms. Burroughs was a quirky and strangely upbeat.  We knew little of her personal life.  She considered that very unprofessional hence the rumors, I suppose.  It seemed as though many disliked her because she was so odd but I secretly adored her.  She respected her students and cared for us deeply.  You could get away with nothing.  She also made me laugh by reprimanding us with humor.  It was the kind of discipline where you knew you were out of line but didn't feel defensive when she rebuked you with the gentle, "Declasse, my dear, declasse!"  Ms. Burroughs also taught very differently than any other teacher.  She loved literature and loved to read it to us.  As very mature 9th graders, this seemed so juvenile, so elementary to us.  Who reads stories, poems, and whole plays (voices included) to 9th graders?  I also secretly enjoyed this and love thinking back on it now that I am a huge advocate of reading aloud to children.  (Side-note: studies show children benefit from parents reading to them well into high school. . .it continues to help with correct grammar and sentence structure and we ALL know that is much needed nowadays.  It makes me shudder to read grammatically incorrect billboards, Facebook statuses, text messages, blog entries.  Common and proper nouns is a second grade lesson, people!)

All this to say, I have found that I receive information (mainly literature) best when I can read it AND have it read to me at the same time.  For this reason I am madly in love with the Bible in 90 Days audio Bible application!  Some friends of mine at church were doing this program and one said she was using the audio to help keep her interested in the reading.  (The program has you reading the Bible from cover to cover in 90 days. . .start thinking Lamentations, Deuteronomy, parts of Judges!!)  At first I thought, "I don't know.  Sounds crazy and Bible on tape has put me to sleep before!" And shame on me for thinking so because the most effective reading I have ever had of Genesis came when I opened up the Word and had it read to me at the same time.  And the good Lord knows how many times I have read Genesis in attempt to read the whole Bible cover to cover.  SO, I thought I would start the program again since I am on the other side of mass chaos: both my sisters getting married, moving and Grandma's 80th birthday bash all in 6 weeks.  I started this morning with Day One of Week One and am hoping that the Gospels line up with Christmas!  I am hoping to record some of my thoughts and pondering here.  I think this method of learning is spawning more questions and random thoughts.  Hope you're up for a wild ride!