Monday, November 23, 2009

God's Loving Plan Paper 2

August 13 12:30 a.m. Tears flooded my face finally. I hadn’t been able to sleep.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I cried desperately to God.

Peter and I spent the summer together. He knew everyone in my life.

August 8: Peter and I celebrated my 21st birthday with my youth. (The people I love the most were there including Peter)

August 12 8:00 p.m. My youth kids and I finished prayer meeting. I called Peter; I saw he tried to call. He broke my heart leaving for another girl.

August 13 6:00 p.m. I had dinner with my dad; I desperately wanted my best friend, Kristen’s company. Dad teased, “Who was that your booooyfriend?” My hurt grew.

9:00 p.m. Kristen is comforting me as I cried. Peter called; we talked quietly.

August 15: I spent the day with my youth pastor’s family. God convicted me to forgive Peter. “Why?” I asked God. He made me remember all He forgave me of and that I needed to forgive others. Dave and Elaine helped to write a letter of forgiveness to Peter.

Forgiveness was my weakness. I held grudges for a long time before. I had dated, but been hurt; this guy had left without telling me. Since then, I decided to wait on God’s timing. “This is God’s timing.” I thought. This made it harder.

Three Months Later

November 15 7:00 p.m. Peter and I had dinner with Dave and Elaine. They ask why he did everything. “God told me to.” Peter replied. “God told you to hurt me?” I thought angrily.

10:00 p.m. I prayed that night and asked God how he could let this happen.

November 16 11:00 a.m. I understand God’s plan. “She needs him to show her my love. Let this go, for the love you need is from me and you have it.” God explained gently. God’s love and peace quickly helped comfort me to let it go.

The Point: Relying on another person for your happiness and to love you does not always work out; in my case, it made it harder to let go after Peter called; the only one to put trust in completely and rely on is God, and God will always be there.


Word Count: 324

Thursday, November 19, 2009

God's Loving Plan

August 13 12:30 a.m. Tears flooded my face finally. I hadn’t been able to sleep.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I cried hard to God.

Peter and I spent the whole summer talking and going out. He knew everyone in my life.

August 8: Peter and I celebrated my 21st birthday with my youth kids. (All the people I love the most were there including Peter)

August 12 8:00 p.m. My youth kids and I finished prayer meeting. I called Peter; I saw that he tried to call. He broke my heart leaving me for another girl.

August 13 6:00 p.m. I had dinner with my dad; I desperately wanted my best friend, Kristen’s company. Dad teased me saying “Who was that your booooyfriend?” My hurt grew more.

9:00 p.m. Kristen is comforting me as I cried. Peter called; we talked quietly.

August 15: I spent the day with my youth pastor and her husband. God convicted me to forgive Peter. Dave and Elaine helped to write a letter to tell Peter I forgive him.

Forgiveness was my weakness. I once held anger against my father for one year; we didn’t talk that year. I had dated, but been hurt; this guy had left without telling me. Since then, I decided to wait on God’s timing. “Peter walking into my life is God’s timing.” I thought. This made it harder.

Three Months Later
November 15 7:00 p.m. Peter and I had dinner with Dave and Elaine. They ask why he did everything. “God told me to.” Peter replied. “God told you to hurt me?” I thought angrily.

November 16 11:00 a.m. I understood God’s plan. Peter needed to help this girl come to God. I needed to learn to forgive, put my trust in God, and live my life completely for God before loving another. God’s love and peace quickly helped to comfort me to let it go.

The Point: Relying on another person for your happiness and to love you does not always work out; in my case, it made it harder to let go after he called. God will always be there.

Word Count: 320

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Shut Up Patty!

My mom, sister, and I went to visit family in South Korea six years ago. While the trip was interesting from start to finish, nothing was as funny and rude as what my sister said when we got off the plane. It had been fourteen long hours of me being ill and unable to stand on my own.

On the plane, I was dizzy, and no food that I ate would stay down. I looked at my mom and sister sitting on either side of me with a look of confusion as to why I was the only one sick since both my sister and I had never been on plane (excluding when we traveled from Korea as babies) and also with a look asking for help to make this go away. “Shut up Patty! You’re faking it.” My sister said jealous of mom’s attention.

I knew I wasn’t, but she didn’t believe me. When we arrived in South Korea, I had a hard time, walking and standing up for that matter. My mom held my arm as we walked off the plane. My mom said to me “Don’t worry, Patty. When we get to Uncle’s house, we will get you medicine.” I nodded and thanked her. We saw my uncle then, smiled, and bowed. I had a pain in my stomach and whined for a second. After my sister said the next thing, my uncle stared at her like she was the rudest niece in the world. “Shut up!”

Point: Be conscious that everyone believes different things. While saying shut up in America in front of an elder is accepted, it is not accepted in Korea. Shut up is an insult there, especially since my uncle thought she was talking to him.

Word Count: 250 Words

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Education Experiences

In 7th grade when I first got out of Special Education, I had a math teacher that didn't really believe in me and didn't think I understood the work I did; I didn't, but I asked my stepdad to help me to do my work. I remember he showed me how to do all the work by hand; I proudly went into school the next day understanding everything. He gave me an F on the assignment. I was so upset, I cried at home where my stepdad was furious with my teacher. His disbelief made me doubt my mathematical abilities.

Last year, I took a health class at AACC and I got to choose which topic I would write my research paper on. I choose to write about music's effect on the brain. Not only was I interested in doing the work from the beginning, I discovered musical tools that I may be able to use in my own classroom. This teacher used this method and by doing so, gave us freedom to write about what we would like and get us interested in writing about health at the same time. She motivated us when we were unmotivated and bored.

Word Count: 200

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

This I believe Update "A Smile Can Say "I Love You"

Sitting by my grandfather’s hospital bed made me cry. He was there for three weeks after I found him in his bedroom; he had fallen. He had his own apartment, so I didn’t know until I arrived to see him. At age 17, I never thought of emotional pain coming to me. I thought of my future and all the happiness it held; reality was the total opposite. I was scared to lose him, because in my life I had six grandparents from my mom, dad, and stepdad’s family. Of those six grandparents, I only knew my dad’s mother, and my stepdad’s father, my grandfather in the hospital. My other grandfather and grandmother from their sides were never in my life and my mom’s parents lived in Korea, so I never got the chance to know them.
When he did wake up after three weeks, I was sitting by his side still. I hadn’t left his side except to go to school with sadness written on my face. I cried the entire time, so when he opened his eyes, he turned to me first out of everyone in the room, held my hand, and smiled at me. He only understood Korean, and I never really learned, so he smiled. Just from that look, I knew what he was saying. I believe a smile can say I love you. Because of illness and fatigue, he gave up on living and died; he was 83. After his death, I grieved a lot. He was the only family that I was really close to. One night a year after he died, I saw my grandfather in a dream. He was smiling at me the way he smiled in the hospital and I had peace; I believe a smile can say I love you.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Servers Are People Too!

Being a server can sometimes be a hard job. There are many things that go into it besides just giving you food, drinks, and a check. Servers are people that deserve respect, no matter what how they act or speak to you.

Every time I’m at a restaurant, there’s always one person that’s a rude customer somewhere in the restaurant that’s treating their servers with total disrespect all because of some outrageous thought like “you didn’t bring me the right drink when someone at my table had that drink.” But then there are customers like my friend and I that went to a restaurant and were ignored except for when we ordered paid for our meal. Even so, we didn’t say anything to our waiter rudely even though we saw him sitting and talking to other customers and co workers while seeing us sitting there waiting for our drinks.

While some servers aren’t polite and don’t consider the customer at all, there are also servers that truly care about their customers, but sometimes get overwhelmed in busy times when they have about ten tables to watch over, and so, sometimes they make mistakes. Or there might even be the ones that are trying to support their family with what they make in tips because that was the only job they could find whether they are good at what they do or not.

No matter what, servers deserve respect. No matter how they behave, they’re people too and they don’t deserve to be treated rudely. My sister was a waitress before and used to tell me stories about what happened; and because Jesus said in the Bible “do to others what you would have them do to you”; I know that I’d want to be treated kindly, so I am kind.

Word Count: 300

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Blog 4 A Lady of Hope and Freedom


America’s looked at by foreign countries as the land of opportunities; when people plan or planned in the past on coming to America, they thought of the Statue of Liberty; and, for them, it was a sign of hope and a better future. The Statue of Liberty is 123 years old; this priceless national jewel was a gift from the French; the birth date of this historic gift is October the 28th, 1886. The statue itself was completed in France in the year 1884. Along with its pedestal, the statue was completed, and dedicated on October 28th, 1886.

This statue has seen many years; immigrants that arrived on Elise Island saw Lady Liberty and found hope and that they would have a better time in America than they had had in their home country. The Statue of Liberty was such an important symbol to people in the past that greater things would happen.

The French gave this gift to America as a gift for Independence. It was important, because the French gave this statue as a centennial gift; it was given ten years after, because of the late timing in creating it. Just as the French thought when giving this gift, immigrants that arrived at Elise Island saw the Statue and recognized its sight and knew that they had arrived in the land of the free.

Even nowadays, Lady Liberty is such a symbol of Freedom. After 9/11, the statue showed our freedom to the world, and while we may have been attacked, it shows that we are a country formed on freedom and that we won’t be moved, nor will we surrender. The statue of Liberty was, is, and will forever be a symbol to the world that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave; and no matter what, that will never change.

Word Count: 311