Hour of Power

I grew up in church. If the doors were open, we were there. My parents never missed an opportunity to have their family in church.  I loved it and if truth be told, I still do. The last two weeks I have not been to church. This is not by some protest, but I have been out of town. In the three weeks since I have been to church on Sunday, I have volunteered at a church event, had my small group bible study-twice, and had another meeting at church. Yet, last night as I was unpacking my clothes, I exclaimed to my husband how much I missed church.  As with many of my exclamations, he just smiled and I demanded to know the reason behind the smile. He explained that I have church every day- I read, I pray, I spend quiet time in meditation, and I try (and often fail) really, really hard to live a Christ like life. He stated that what I missed was the feeling of church. In fact, he questioned me on the last sermon I heard and its content.  Sadly, I could not remember the sermon. I thought and I thought and I thought and I could remember a song we sang and I could remember who preached (our church is in transition of pastors right now) but for the life of me, I could not remember the sermon.

As I have discovered in my almost 20 years of marriage, my husband is right many times. What I was missing was the hour of being at church and the wonderful message from our pastor and the beautiful music, and the friendships I have there. The "Hour of Power" is what it can be referred to as many times.  I was missing the feeling of church. It is a place that I am comfortable. It is a place where I feel great for an hour each week. This got me thinking about school and really about this blog.

Oftentimes I am told by staff members how much they cannot wait for the weekly Monday Musing to come out. They love reading whatever I’ve written. I often wonder; however, is it just the weekly ritual of the Monday Musing or is it because they are really interested in growing and learning in their craft or is it just fun to read what crazy idea I’ve come up with this week and how I relate it to school? Growing and learning how to be a better educator, leader, mother, wife, and friend has always been high on my list of reading material. I love to learn more about how to do all of those things better. Reading is great. Reading is fun for me. But reading about how to be better will not get me there. I have to actual practice being better. But first, I want to want to be better.  In the four years that I have written the Monday Musings, I have tried to make you think. I have challenged you to become better today than you were yesterday. I have tried to help you realize the awesomeness of this position and the real life potential you have to affect the trajectory of a child’s life.

I felt compelled this week by something that happened last week to challenge you to not make the Monday Musing a ritual that I sometimes make my Sunday church service. I just needed to say that I do this Monday Musing not to make you feel good for the few minutes it takes to read. I do this to hopefully help you continue to grow.  And unlike my church service, I hope you retain a little something along the way.