school|Jane Caroline

I’ve never been more excited about moving. I guess now that I’m a senior (senior?! surely not so…) I’ve accumulated the perfect furniture, decorations, and a well stocked bookshelf (one of my not-so-secret goals in life), that moving was inexpensive and rewarding.

Yesterday Clayton asked me what was going to make this year successful, and it got my thinking about how many practical things can genuinely affect how we feel about daily tasks and stresses. Here are just a few:

-keep a clean room– organization, knowing where things are, order. I honestly think my haven is going to aid this year immensely!

example: I bought a second desk that is going to be called my focus desk (and yes, I realize it sounds a bit like a time-out chair for kindergartners). The desk is to remain empty– clutter is a killer of all productivity for me.

-exercise– the rumor is true. It makes you feel better. Spinning classes here I come!
-live on a budget– it is written and ready to begin. Whenever I spend money, guilt from sits on my shoulders like a heavy box. Why carry needless guilt? Oh Dave Ramsey, you make sense.

but here’s the kicker: while I can do these practical things, the foundational truth is this: how I am spiritually affects everything –attitudes, motivation, kindness, desire for growth in other areas, etc all go down the drain when I don’t daily commune with the Lord (doesn’t this point to how we’re wired? We are created by God and for God, right?)

I find myself dancing in a circle; I’m stoked about my room and motivated more than ever to stay organized, exercise, eat right, spend right, study right, and I could go on… and on… But just like that list, those “successes” can only take me so far. Take my room: It offers a home, a place to study and rest, a place to grow, but it’s still just a thing. It can only do so much.

My heart’s haven must be in the presence of the Lord, or my little room will just be a place of escape.

For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. Psalm 32:7

My goal: that my little haven and new personal growth “kicks” might help my heart find and remain in the haven the Lord created in his presence. That, I think, might be what it takes to have a successful year.

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original intent.

Posted by Caroline on Jul 11, 2010 in The Backpack | 0 comments

Harvard’s Rules and Precepts 1636:
“Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is etneral life (John 17:3) and therefore lay Christ at the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

They must have foreseen that we’d eventually forsake our foundation.
It seems that they were warning us.
Yet, we’re right where they didn’t want us to be.

If the founders were to see our educational systems today, they would grieve.

Naively, I didn’t see a problem.
however, seeing the founders original intention,

I, too, grieve.

Princeton:
“Cursed is all learning that is contrary to the Cross of Christ”
Founding Statement

Columbia University

Where did the dichotomy arise? Whence came the idea that learning and spiritual growth must be separate? that somehow faith must be put on hold in order to find real knowledge? that Christians cannot be intellectuals or worse, that Christianity is not intelligible?

As I pursue Truth,
I pursue Him.
Now, may it be Truth that I pursue.
Always.

THAT is true learning.

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Coffee is the first step of research for a paper

Blessed Instead of Stressed

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Introducing Dr. Raines

Posted by Caroline on May 23, 2010 in Family | 0 comments

Last weekend Elizabeth became the first doctor in the family. She gets an official fancy-schmancy AuD to follow her name and will be working at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Oh and she can revolutionize your hearing. My grandparents can attest.

We spent all weekend in Little Rock with family. In order for the festivities to begin, the hair needed to be “poofed,” and “poofed” we got it.

Granddaddy was so proud (not of the poof but of the graduate).

I treasure the fact that I grew up in a family that esteems education.

I’ve been on a reading kick lately, and I apologized to my mom for being slightly anti-social. She chuckled sincerely,

“I always wanted my children to be readers.”

My mom would read to us constantly– in the car line, after school, while we drifted to sleep and first thing in the morning.

Learning is never a loss.

…neither were the hours of piano lessons. James is a stud.

James graduated two days later, and quietly on the side is happy little Robert. I keep telling him not grow up, and that’s about the only request he doesn’t obey. God is going to do something huge with the guy, because already He’s so wise and insightful.