Go Ahead! Judge that Book Cover!

I’ve been up to my eyeballs testing my children (yes, children, not robots to the state!) this week. One of the questions on their individual reading tests is “How do you pick a book to read?” The answer is quite simple, I always feel like saying… duh, I look at the cover! We are also supposed to open it up and see if it is a good fit, you know, not too hard, not too easy. See if we know most of the words, but not all of the words. Makes sense right? Then, we go out into the world and we are taught, don’t judge. I don’t judge, I don’t like when people judge me, the only one I will answer to is my almighty God when He brings me home. He is my one and only judge. And I want to impress Him, I want to live for eternity UPstairs, not DOWNstairs. But what if I left it up to my cover? Would anyone want to open me up and look at my words?

The past 48 hours have been eye opening for this tired teacher. I have heard things and been told things that are hard to believe. I could name 3 or 4 close people to me right now that have totally blown my mind with what I’ve been told. How could I have been so fooled? If I had judged these people’s covers,  I might have been prepared better.

People have really upped their game to making things “look” normal, healthy, wonderful, when in reality, they might just suck. For example, one adorable, beautiful couple with a great family have broken up, a close family member has gone pyscho, someone I thought I knew spewed out such obscenities it made me cry upon hearing them, such mean words that can never be taken back (when I know they were just said in anger), another someone puts on such a righteous front when in reality doesn’t even support someone they should… I have to stop, I’ve created a run on sentence, my kids should correct me. I am sitting here in disbelief!!!

Okay, then I shall turn on the T.V. and watch the news! People are dying from the flu!!!!! Missiles are headed to Hawaii, oh, wait, false alarm. Recalls on frozen waffles???? Cars are crashing on ice, cities are being flooded, most of California looks like a disaster area (like my mom used to call my room) first from the fires, now mudslides. Subzero temperatures. Is it 1,000 degrees somewhere? I can’t fix anything anymore! The game has COMPLETELY changed!!!!

Tomorrow I can’t wait to get to school, the only normal I am feeling is going to school with my babies, even though they aren’t babies, they are kids. I am going to show them how to enjoy their day. I am going to teach them not to be afraid of the dark and we are going to have Flashlight Friday again, my (and their) favorite kind of day. Getting lost in a book in the dark with a flashlight to read by.

I hope you all have a great day, night, week, or weekend, depending when you read this. Sorry if this post seems negative, I really am trying to let it out so the positive can replace it…