How long do you hold onto a pen?  Just enough to write with it?  Does it even slip out of your hand WHILE you’re writing with it and you have to pick up a new to just finish what you’re writing?  I have to admit that I am like the Hugh Hefner of pens.  I always have a new one by my side and in my grasp.  Yet, I differ from Hef in the fact that it doesn’t even have to be a good looking pen, just one that gets my notes taken…don’t take that one to the gutter…

Anyway, I found out something interesting about my wife today.  She has long been dedicate to ONE pen until it dies.  She had ONE pen on her desk…ONE in the car…ONE in her purse.  There was no stash of pens or one lying around every corner waiting to be used and abused.  She cherished them like a papa penguin guards his egg in the Antarctic.  I have therefore dubbed her the “Monogamous Pen Lady,” which is very fitting and monogamous is just a fun word to say.  She is now in remission, because she has fallen to the dark side and now, like her husband…loves’em and leaves’em.

This post is for all those broken-hearted pens out there…you treated me kind while we shared a note together and I hope you’re doing well.

I title this for the reason that scavengers don’t just find things, but they generally use them or eat them (in the animal world at least).  I have a few students that have a habit of consuming the things that we civilized folk would generally term non-consumable.  I am talking about the infamous “booger.”  We’ve had the discussion about refraining from this activity a number of times, but it must be incredibly addictive.  I’m not sure what they treasure more:  long, stringy and sticky or crusty and crunchy.  Either way…remember this fact:  The next time you continue to pick your boogers and put them into your mouth WHILE your teacher is staring directly at you…you have a serious problem for which modern medicine has yet to determine a solution.

I had a student ask me lately, “Mr.G, are you supposed to know everything after confirmation?  Should I have a really good grasp on my faith and really get it?  Because, I’m not sure I’m there or even close.  I’m just confused even more than I was before.”  I struggled with this for a moment, because I think confirmation should not only instruct students, but more importantly inspire them to learn more, dig deeper into scripture, discuss their faith, share it, experience it, and get excited about everyday with Christ.  It seemed as though that spark was missing now with this student and in whom I had seen it before.  This is when God hit me with it.  You know those times when you know it’s not you speaking, because you know for sure that you’re really not that smart?  Yeah, well, this was one of those times.  I had never heard this analogy used for confirmation, but God knew what she needed to hear.  So, I said, “Think about a big, huge 5 course meal…tons of food, more than you really could ever eat, but people try anyway!  The meal is your faith and you’ll never totally finish it, but confirmation is the appetizer.  It tells you what’s to come.  It lets you know how awesome the main dishes will be.  You start to get it, but you’re gonna be there a while!  You’ll spend your whole life growing and learning about your faith and when you hit the sweet dessert, you’ll be in Heaven and God will tell you everything you waited to know.”  The smile came back to her face and I thanked God for being the wonderful, inspirational God He is.  I have a feeling He would’ve said the same thing, only with much more grandeur…like from a burning bush or something sweet like that.

Sometimes I randomly play little riffs on my guitar that I make up in the hallways, chapel, my classroom, during tests, well…whenever I’m holding onto my guitar that is…
Well, one day while the second graders were getting in a circle for a music game, I just pulled off a little riff and Tommy says in a sincere, matter-of-fact voice… “Huh, that’s cool Mr.G, sounds kinda like Master of Puppets.” He was right…which was interesting to say the least… but why was an 8-year-old making connections between my riffs and 80s hardrock?

Have I told you my students are creative? Well, one of them proved this once again by a comment that had me rolling the other day…
I walked out of my office in the music room at school before second grade music time and the kids were already sitting on the risers for me to start class. I like to get started without any downtime, so that I don’t lose them within the first minute! I just busted into “I’m in Love with the King” and the kids jumped up and started singing and doing the actions. Before I could move from our warm-up song into our activity, “Tommy” was wiggling and squirming all over in his spot with his arm about to pop straight up out of his socket. I said, “Yes Tommy? It looks as though you have a question,” in a calm, wanting to move on with the lesson voice. Then he hit me with it.
“Yeah! You know, Mr.G, when you came walking out of the room with your guitar, I could see it now…THE LIGHTS!…THE FOG!…THE CROWD!!…YOU JAMMIN ON THE GUITAR!! (big crunching guitar sound and windmill strum move made famous by The Who)…YEAH!!!…it was awesome…” My jaw dropped and I couldn’t believe all of that had randomly come out of an 8-year-old’s mouth, but I just couldn’t help but laugh and say thank you.