Solomon And The Great State of Oklahoma!

 

Solomon And The Great State of Oklahoma!

I saw the best high school production a number of  years ago, our WCS version of The Addams Family. One of the stars was Olivia who is featured below. (Siblings Josh and Tara also were in the cast!) Talent runs in families. This is from November 9, 2013.
There was not a whole lot of what my students would call entertainment when I grew up in Nebraska. No cell phones or IPODS, no laptops or MTV or Netflix. There was a small radio station, KAWL, in York, Nebraska with a typical small town fare; ball games, hospital and farm reports, on air swap meets, and some popular music at intervals. My parents filled in the culture gap. They were always playing records of classical music and musicals. (I think my dad, who played the harmonica as a young man, was a frustrated musician and both my parents had been part of their college chorus.) They really loved the musicals, like Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music. They played them constantly. ( I should note here that Mom also had the quaint habit of playing Christmas music in the summer as well as the other three seasons.) They played these 33 1/3 LPs so much I had the soundtracks memorized as well as almost every song in our church songbook- we sang them quite a bit as well.

My favorite of the musicals my folks filled the Hawley home with was Oklahoma, the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. It's ironic because as a kid, I had no love for the state two states south of us due to the intensity of the football rivalry of the Huskers and the Sooners. Still, the musical's songs became etched into my psyche after listening to them countless times. That brings me to this week. Our WCS Fine Arts Department put on Oklahoma in three performances, and I was honored to attend this afternoon's showing. Every actor/actress on stage was a student or former student of mine with the exception of three seventh graders will be in my class next year. The stage and lighting crews were also my students so I felt a real connection. Several of my eighth grade, fifth period Bible students, Kalani and Payton, had major speaking and singing roles. That leads me to Olivia, who is also in that same period. Olivia, who was born to be in front of an audience, was cast in the role of Ado Annie. Repeatedly in class, I made reference to the fact that I knew all the songs and graciously offered the opportunity to practice with her in front of her peers. Shockingly, Olivia, who played two basketball games for me as a sixth grader, rejected my bid to aid her musical development and prepare her for the bright lights. No worries- she hit a home run today and afterwards, I told her how proud I was of her and my disappointment dissipated. It's a good thing, too. No doubt, Olivia will make many crowds smile and clap and rejoice and I won't always there to pull her through. Someday, she'll have to launch out on her own and I guess this was a good place to start.

Of course, this really has nothing to do with musicals and singing or even Olivia... but then again, it does. You see, her mom, Dena, is the head of our Fine Arts Department and her dad, John, acts professionally. Olivia, along with having great entertainment DNA, has been exposed to the theatrical life since, I would guess, early childhood and it has shaped her into a wonderful performer. What my parents exposed to their children has stuck with me as well. It's easy to make a joke about knowing song lyrics because of a record player which seemingly never was shut off but it's really about how everything we see and hear and witness as little ones becomes part of who we are. We often hear Solomon's words quoted from Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6:
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
I thought of that today as I was sitting in the crowd and mentally singing along with Olivia and the rest of the cast. Even though I am no singer and no actor, I'm glad that my mom and dad gave me the chance to listen to timeless music which has become part of the American heritage. And while they were doing that, they also were modeling for me how to walk with the Lord, just as the parents of a certain young actress who doesn't really need my help are modeling for her and her two younger siblings. And undoubtedly, that's a show that will run for eternity.

To watch Ado Annie in the film version of Oklahoma in a scene with Laurie, who in the WCS production, was played by Taylor, one of my former players, click below!
http://youtu.be/A18kYnP4Pec

Applicable quote of the day:
I see my upbringing as a great success story. By disciplining me, my parents inculcated self-discipline. And by restricting my choices as a child, they gave me so many choices in my life as an adult. Because of what they did then, I get to do the work I love now.
Amy Chua

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Little Picture

 

The Little Picture

I use this example every year at basketball camp! It's from November 14, 2017.
Every day on Facebook, I get a pop up memory from something I posted on the current calendar date a certain number of years ago, usually from one to three. Not long ago, the memory selected was a blog I penned about one of my players, Jordyn, who received our first ever  Capri Sun Player Of The Week Trophy. The remembrance was accompanied by the picture accompanying the blog which is shown above, our WCS middle school girls basketball squad of 2013-2014. It was a fun year and I love seeing the older kids who are now getting close to graduation! Time speeds up after 8th grade!

I showed the picture to some of the kids on that team who are now juniors but were 7th graders when the shot was taken. We laughed at how much they have grown in the four years. Lots of kids drift off into other extracurriculars after middle school and this bunch was no different. High school basketball is so time consuming and physically demanding that you have to have a great love of the game to continue playing. It's funny- I have no idea what our record was but I do recall that we were competitive. There is one thing I've never forgotten, though. The girl in the front left is Elizabeth. She was an 8th grader and had not played the year before. In the insert picture you will see what I remember. You see, Elizabeth had a terrible issue with injuries that season. She might have played in three or four games at the max. In the above photograph, she is wearing a boot because she had just had bones removed for her foot. When she recovered from that, it was something else injured. She just never really healed all season. And yet, that's why I'm writing about her. Elizabeth suited up every day for practice. Every Day. Most days, she physically could not get on the floor with the rest of us......... but she suited up every day. If you coach for a living, you know how rare that is. The tendency is for kids to disappear when they are having any sort of injury problem- that is the antithesis of Elizabeth. She was as loyal a teammate as I have ever coached. Too bad they don't have a stat for that.  (I also let the kids referee in the spring and Elizabeth was the best player/ref we've ever had..... but that's a story for another day.)

Too many times we get caught up in the big picture when the story is in the little picture. Elizabeth's season was noble  because she persisted when the normal rewards- playing time, points, praise for scoring- weren't available to her. She's gone on to other things- she's amazingly talented in other arenas that will outlast athletics. Today I showed a film clip in my classes from CBS On The Road With Steve Hartman. It was about a middle school boy who plays basketball with no arms. You read that right- no arms! And yet there was so much more to the kid! My later classes had the bonus question of writing about Jamarion Stiles but they couldn't talk about his physical challenge. I was proud of the insights my kids showed. That's what you need to see about Elizabeth. It wasn't that she played little- it's how she was an an example of all of us in handling adversity. In Philippians 1:3, Paul famously wrote by inspiration that, "I thank my God every time I remember you."   That's how I remember Elizabeth every day when I'm blessed to see her in the hall. That's why we coach and that's how we should live.

Click to watch the short piece from CBS NEWS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7-yN6GVg4

Applicable quote of the day:
A good teammate is someone willing to get outside of personal thoughts and emotions, a friend who tries to understand, appreciate, and encourage other members of the team. 
Don Kardong


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Wooing of Nelda Chesshir

 

The Wooing of Nelda Chesshir

Recently in my five Bible classes, we have looked at courtship, love, and marriage from a Christian perspective through the use of the videos of Johnny Lingo and The Phone Call. I could not say it any better than my late father's words when he spoke of my late mother. He wrote it eighteenteen years ago in the summer of 2007, shortly before he suffered the stroke that would ultimately cost him his life. I am convinced his last earthly thought was of our mother. My eighth graders today wrote their test essay on what modern courtship, a term they are not familiar with, should look like. What my father penned would be a good starting place.

As I read--and reread--what I wrote in Steve's blog nearly a year ago (please see July 17, 2006), tears came to my eyes and I felt a lump in my throat. That was a recounting of my meeting and later wooing of Nelda Chesshir on the campus of Harding College. The acquaintance first took place in the fall of 1946, the wooing two years later. "Wooing"--that seems like such an old-fashioned term, one that has unfortunately fallen mostly into disuse, while still retaining respectability. Couples in their older years are more likely to comprehend the full meaning of the term. To me it means to pursue the girl, all the time receiving some subtle--maybe very subtle--encouragement from the girl. At least that's the way it was with Nelda and me. She let me know, subtly, of course, that if I wanted her I'd have to work for her. That, of course, made the challenge more intriguing, the prize more desirable.

Courtship--that's another out-of-fashion word--is a process filled with mystery. It is, and always will be, a game of sorts. Proverbs 30:18-19 speaks of four things that are amazing--beyond understanding--the last of which is "the way of a man with a maiden." I've never understood that one myself--but it seems to work, that intricate dance of mutual discovery and usually unacknowledged but very real negotiation.

As I look back in a review of the years of our marriage, and with 57 of them there is a lot to review, I realize how much God has worked in our relationship to re-mold and re-form us, both as individuals and as a partnership. As I hit the fast-forward button, stopping at various points to take a look, I can see how God's hand has been at work all along. The wooing before marriage seemed to take little or no work. (Don't we speak of FALLING in love, not struggling uphill into love?) With the "I do's"--that's when the true work begins. The honeymoon ends and we get down to the real business of constructing a partnership out of the raw material of two diverse personalities, at least if we do it God's way.

Did the wooing cease? Admittedly it faltered at times and God had to pull us back on track, sometimes discouragingly often. But courtship takes different forms at different points in our growth and development. Now, as we near the end of our tape, with Nelda's advanced Alzheimer's, the courtship has had to take the form of mostly one-way care giving. But that's wooing, too, of a different and deeper nature. And with God's help it will continue until one of us goes home to be with Him.

Applicable quote of the day:

How far will you go with me, my Love?

To the stile or the bridge or the great oak tree?

The lane is a lonely and fearsome place

And there's no one journeying there but me.

She smiled at the stile with a sweet disdain,

She scoffed at the bridge and the great oak tree

And looked me full in the eyes and said,

"I will go to the end of the way with thee."

Then I loved her anew, with a strange fierce love,

As high as the stars and as deep as the sea.

She would share my heaven and share my woe;

She would go to the end of the Lane with me.

Recited by Harold Hawley in Roger and Nelda's wedding ceremony, December 25, 1949. (author unknown)

God bless,

Roger (Steve's dad)

God bless,
Steve/son of Roger ad Nelda
Luke 18:1

Conversations With A Five Year Old

 

Conversations With A Five Year Old

Lord willing, I will see Jenson at Thanksgiving! This is from November 26, 2017.
I'm back from spending parts of six days with my family in Kansas. One of the blessings of teaching is that you know years in advance when your days off work will be. One of the blessings of having two brothers who also are in education is that their schedules will roughly parallel your own. Dave and Scott teach together, and Scott's wife, Karen, is the registrar for the same school, so our vacations coincide although not quite perfectly. The timing of their school calendar to mine is close enough to where I can spend time with their families and they are kind enough to put up with me! Lord willing, I will be reprising this past trip in twenty-six days for the Christmas holidays.

One of the blessings of this past week was that I was able to spend time with two of my great nieces and one of my great nephews. My nephew, Ben, and his lovely wife, Courtney, are living with Dave and Sally until they close on their new house in several weeks. So, I was able to be around Caroline-Jenson-Bo who I see rarely. Caroline is just walking and shy around me but Jenson and Bo, both in Pre-K, were fun to play with. The past several trips, they've more or less ignored me but this time, I was their new buddy. We read together, watched videos together, and played together. Jenson even drew a picture for me which now adorns my wall. That's the life of a great uncle- fun without the responsibility! There were several takeaways from my time at Dave and Sally's. One was a new respect for SAHMs like Courtney. Three small ones don't leave much time to relax. I was worn out just by observation! I also was impressed by how Bo and Jenson try to be helpful. They were constantly picking up sticks in the yard so Dave would build a fire. OK, it was mostly in the sixties but you just can't go wrong with a fire in the fireplace! 

But my favorite moments with the kiddos were the ones listening to Jenson, age five. The first night I was there she asked me, 
'Uncle Steve, what are you getting me for Christmas?'
I turned it around and asked what she was getting me. Jenson didn't have an answer to that so we will continue that line of dialogue in a couple of weeks when I return. On the afternoon before they went to visit Courtney's folks in Oklahoma, she was riding with Dave and me to their church building to help set up for a pie supper after mid week Bible study. Jenson was asked, "What are your favorite holidays?"
Has to be Thanksgiving and Christmas, right? Without batting an eye, she blurted out,
'Valentine's Day!'
I laughed and asked, "Because of candy and boys?"
She seemed  slightly puzzled but replied, 'Just candy!' That will make Ben happy!
Well, what's your other one?
With no hesitation, she informed us, 
'My birthday!'
I like that- all of us should consider our birthdays a holiday. The world would be a little sweeter if we did!

My favorite moment of interacting with Jenson came on the same excursion. I was listening on the car radio to an interview with one of the members The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty's band. I was getting into it when Jenson asked Dave, who was driving, a question from the back seat. I don't remember the question but I clearly recall what Dave did. He turned off the radio so he could clearly hear what his granddaughter wanted to ask him with no interruptions. Dave's total focus was on Jenson. The interview was unwanted clutter in the communication with the little girl who means the world to him. I probably would have forgotten the interview by now but not the very short vignette starring my brother and my great niece. That's how I picture our Father in Heaven listening to His children. Our questions and pleas are deeper and our dilemmas are more gut wrenching, at least in our eyes, but our God gives us His undivided attention. The scriptures are full of times when Jehovah beseeches His children to beseech Him. My belief is that He can totally focus on all of  us individually at the same time and in my limited understanding, I have no clue as to how that is accomplished. Maybe He enjoys our words in the same way I get enjoyment from the words of Jenson. Maybe He just loves when we reach out to Him. Sometimes when Jenson wanted me to play or read to her, I was too busy. Praise the Lord that our God is never too busy for us..... and the radio never gets in the way. Tom Petty will just have to wait.

Applicable quote of the day:
The soul is healed by being with children. 
Fyodor Dostoevsky

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Wishin' And Hopin'

 

Wishin' And Hopin'

My Bible classes at school always start with a couple of great stories about children being born. I like baby stories, especially about the child born in Bethlehem a long time ago. Here is another one of my favorite baby tales, this one from September 5, 2007.

I don't know much about babies except for being one at some point in my life but I spend enough time with kids to know they have influence beyond their size and years. Did you catch the story in Florida last week? A four year old girl named Zoe Byler was an only child and told her parents of her wish to have a brother or sister. Zoe's folks, Karoline and Ben, deemed it a reasonable request. Karoline, facing some medical issues, took fertility drugs and got pregnant, really pregnant. Last week, the twenty-nine year old gave birth to sextuplets, five boys and one girl, delivered at twenty-nine weeks. The sextuplets are the first recorded case in Florida history and each baby appears to have an excellent chance for survival. Wow: some wishes do come true! And you can trace it all back to a four year old.

 My classes have been discussing the miraculous births of John the Baptist and Jesus. We talked about the reaction of the mothers, one too old and one too single according to the norms of nature and the culture. Elizabeth rejoiced when pregnant with John the Baptist, elated that her barren condition and her disgrace had been removed. Mary, alarmed at the sight of the angel Gabriel, was terrified at first and then wondered how a virgin could have a child. I brought up some issues the Bylers will face with six premature babies arriving in one delivery, primarily the unbelievable costs that will be incurred over the next several decades. I asked whether those issues disappeared when that mother held those precious babies in her arms. My guess is she saw her DNA and not dollar signs, her future generations and not the worry of affordability. Babies change families and babies change history. What would the world be without John the Baptist and his cousin, the Prince of Peace? And six little ones in Florida owe their lives to their not-yet-big sister. Oh, baby!

Applicable quote of the day:
"Babies are always more trouble than you thought- and more wonderful."
Charles Osgood 

To listen to one of the greatest pop songs ever, Dusty Springfield sing Wishin' and Hopin' click below!
http://youtu.be/gAdTsAKvVTU

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Disappointment

 

The Disappointment

This is one of the reasons why there is nothing else quite like caching girls! It's from October 21, 2013!
We had our first early basketball practice this morning. By early, I mean we started at 7:25 AM or fifteen minutes earlier than usual. We will keep this schedule until the end of our season in late January except for days after games when we will being with the start of the school day at 7:40 AM. We have an interesting situation in that we practice every day of the school year, exempting finals and special occasions, but never longer than fifty minutes. It went well today- we did a lot of conditioning and let me quote Jenna here:
"I hate conditioning!!"
Let me quote an old coach here in response to the lovely Jenna:
"Conditioning that's fun isn't conditioning."

Girls are funny and maybe even more ritualistic than boys. We have a new player on our team this year. She's an 8th grader who came to our school last year but did not play. She's a good athlete and has picked up things quickly and there's quite a bit to learn if you've never played before, especially in the footwork department. I can't remember quite when but she started this little tradition with me at the end of practices. After we stack it up and recap and pray and yell 1-2-3 TOGETHER, she invariably asks me if I want to watch her shoot a three pointer. I always tell her if she misses, she has to kiss the floor and if she makes it, I'll kiss the floor. Today was no different. Yet as the other girls made their way to the locker room to change for the school day, I told the young lady I wanted to talk to her first. I mentioned how I had graded the Bible test she took on Friday and how she had written extraordinary answers to her essay questions. I told her how she has a chance to be a tremendous student if she keeps on the path she has begun. I commented with how pleased I was to have her on our team this year. As I finished up our 45 second, one sided conversation, I asked her, "Ready to shoot?" Bafflingly, to me, she responded,
 "I can't shoot now."
Of course, I asked why not and this was her response:
"After you paid me such a nice compliment, I'm afraid you would be disappointed with me if I missed."
That really took me aback and I'm not really sure what I said next but I think it was along the lines of that's why I love coaching girls.

As the day has gone on, I outlined the scenario to several of my other classes, never using the girl's name or grade or any other identifying characteristic that might jeopardize her anonymity. Without fail, the females identified with her feelings about taking and possibly missing the three pointer. The guys? Are you kidding? They were as mystified as I was. The only thing I can figure out is that she links basketball and academics and my approval. To me and those of my gender, those are absolutely unrelated and separate entities. Not to the fairer of the human species; they are indelibly linked. I once had a very good player averaging about twenty points/ten rebounds per game. On the bus to an away contest, her boyfriend handed her a note and broke up with her. Her line for that game:
 1 point 0 rebounds 5 fouls 5 minutes of playing time
She could not separate her romantic life from her athletic life and by the way, we lost to a team we had killed earlier. If it had been the boy that got dumped, he probably would have played better!

It seems inconceivable to me that anyone would come to the conclusion that my player did twelve hours ago. How can you link separate issues? And yet, I do it all the time. I struggle to think God still loves me when I sin. In spite of the good things I try to do and the knowledge that my goodness cannot save myself, I secretly wonder, briefly at least, if our Father is so fed up with me that he finds me totally worthless. Intellectually, I know that's not true but it bears a striking resemblance to that conversation I had this morning. I tie my feeble efforts with the amazing love the Lord had for me, to send his beloved Son to redeem the lost. So, I learned something from a thirteen year old girl on a basketball court and she didn't even realize she was teaching me an invaluable lesson. Once again, the player was the coach and I get a glimpse of why I am so blessed to work with these young ladies. Tomorrow, I hope she takes her shot again.

Applicable quote of the day:
''We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.''
LZ Granderson


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Like Son, Like Father

 

Like Son, Like Father

One of my favorite students and his dad! This s from May 24, 2011.
Phillip became my FACEBOOK friend this morning at 5:22. Normally, I don't notice stuff like that but that's very early for a young man who just finished his freshman year in college. It made sense, though, when I realized he was in Europe on a mission trip and they are slightly ahead of us, time-wise. He's an interesting young man. I taught Phillip in both eighth grade and his sophomore years and although he was very bright, I never saw any more than normal interest level in what I was teaching. He was just a very polite and quiet kid who was an excellent soccer player on our school team. All that changed sometime last year. His senior year Bible teacher at WCS was very involved in mission work and lit a fire in Phillip's heart to tell the gospel on far flung continents. And now, he's across the Atlantic, talking about the Savior. At the risk of a copyright violation, here is his last FACEBOOK post :
Phillip Zamora
Good day today! Had a reading lesson with a woman who is Hindu; she told me that this was the first time she has read about Jesus.
You know, I wasn't spanning the globe telling the lost about the Lord when I was a teenager. We did not have the same opportunities young Christians have today but I can't truthfully say how much I would have embraced the missionary call back then. I also wish I could say I was the Bible teacher that sparked Phillip's interest in being a soul winner but I can't say that truthfully, either.

I can tell you that Phillip was the center of one of the happiest Mom moments in my recent memory. Phillip's wonderful mother, Mary, is one of my fellow teachers. Several weeks ago on a Monday morning, she told me she had the best news ever. Her husband had never become a Christian while Phillip or his older sister, Nicole, were kids. On that Sunday morning, Mary's significant other took the biggest step any of us will ever take and took Jesus as his Savior. Guess who had the honor of baptizing Phillip's dad? Phillip!! I don't think I have ever witnessed that scene in all my years where a son baptizes his dad. Now, Phillip not only has the parent-child relationship with the man who raised him, he has the brother-brother relationship with a fellow believer. His family is now totally complete and united and let me tell you, Mary is one thrilled and proud momma/wife/sister in the Lord. Jesus taught that His family is comprised of those who do the will of the Father. Phillip will be helping expand THAT family in Switzerland tonight while we are sleeping back home in the USA. God bless you, Phillip: go with God.

Applicable quote of the day, # 1:
"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God."
  John Stott

Applicable quote of the day, # 2:
"Here am I. Send me."
Isaiah

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1