#5. Junior High Lessons

Junior high is a tumultuous time full of weird people, weird feelings, weird hormones, chaos and confusion.  It's also an epic time to learn and grow!

  1. What you wear says a lot about who you are.  Take care of yourself.  Mix up your wardrobe and above all else don't wear the same sweater everyday, as this isn't socially appropriate and might embarrass your sister.
  2. Don't push people away when you are struggling.  Communicate your hurt and your needs. Good friends and family truly do care.  The battles you face you don't have to face alone.
  3. You are loved by the God of the universe.  Even if the world crumbles around you, the most important person in the universe desires to wrap arms around you and snuggle you close in a tender and gentle hug.  Nothing can beat that love, and NOTHING can break it.  Amazing!
  4. Speak with grace.  Even if you think a person is making a huge mistake, there are better ways of confronting them then saying, "that's a dumb decision."
  5. Take people at their word.  If someone threatens to punch you in the stomach, chances are they will.  
  6. Avoid getting punched in the stomach.  It hurts...
  7. Don't take yourself too seriously.  It's middle school.  You might think that you are at the peak of life, but really you are in the armpit.  It gets way better!
  8. Apologize for hurting those you love.  Don't wait until a good time.  Do it now, or you'll miss out on many marvelous times together and a potentially beautiful friendship.
  9. Pray.  God hears.  He cares.  He's present.  He responds.  Listen for His response.  It will come.
  10. Don't jump off roofs.   Even if you are really mad and need to escape, and even if the roof is low to the ground.  It's dumb, and you'll get hurt, unless you are a parkour expert, which you probably are not. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When the national parks close, and thinking time increases...continue to wonder/wander.

Oftentimes I find myself wondering... I wonder why certain things scare some people and not others. I wonder why the world was created in the way it is (for beauty, for purpose, for desire, etc.). I wonder why death claims one and not the other. I wonder why we bottle things up instead of releasing them, talking about them, and letting them heal. I wonder why we're afraid to step outside our comfort zones...when we know growth is beautiful. I wonder why people repeat what they know instead of exploring the new. I wonder why it's so challenging to admit our hardest struggles, when we all struggle deeply. I wonder why people give-up and let go so easily. I wonder why cheddar cheese is dyed orange, why music sinks so deeply into the soul, why flying cars haven't yet been built (it is, after all, 2020, and I seem to remember a writing prompt from middle school... "Write about how the world will look in the year 2025, when scientists predict there will...
Read more

Walking Dead

The Zombie apocalypse has been a recent and deep concern for the future of all humankind ... perhaps ever since Y2K or the end of the Mayan calendar... or perhaps since the world began?  Although the general views of zombies are of humans who are mad and cannibalistic, perhaps there is a more present danger among us: the not-so-cannibalistic zombie in hiding. Zombies in hiding do not eat other humans, but they do suck up the positive energy in the room and replace it with a general feeling of despair and sorrow.  They are usually hard to get together with because they are afraid of inflicting another person with their personal raincloud, and so often go quiet to the world until they turn back into a normal human.  This may take days or weeks or months or years.  Zombies in hiding are very good at hiding, and it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with their fears of bringing you down.  They are staying away because they want to protect you from them...
Read more

COVID Hasn't Frozen Time

I looked up today after having my head 'down'... (for 7 months!!!) ...quietly escaping into the natural wilderness, or staring at my computer screen and living on Zoom, Google Meets, Skype, and FaceTime.  Inside my mind the word has felt halted, like a really long snow day: an unexpected pause in time.  Unfortunately, time doesn't actually pause.  When we put our heads down to focus, to hide ourselves, to survive, etc., time continues.  Life continues.  We may pause, but the rest of the universe is still in motion.  Even our atoms are ageing (or, rather, decaying).   It's strange, though, to think about HOW the world is changing around us when we really can't see it moving.  After COVID, things can't go back to 'normal' because life doesn't pause, and 'normal' only exists in the expected.  We have no way to prepare our minds for all the changes that will have taken place in these 7 or 10 or 14 months we live in isolation.   Mar...
Read more