A New Life

Julie and I are having a baby! Our lives already feel like they are completely different. We wanted to wait until Christmas to tell everyone but Julie has been feeling really sick. Hopefully, this doesn't last too long.


We pray that God will take care of this child slowly forming in the womb. Our child is already "fearfully and wonderfully made." We stand in awe of God's intricate design and the overwhelming sense of blessing that we already feel.


Right now our baby is about the size of a raisin (7 weeks), so we have named the baby Ray Zenz. God's hand is at work already in this little life: the baby already has little buds for arms and legs, the heart has begun to beat, and "raisin" is already swimming around inside the amniotic sac.


"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and stars, which you have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him...? (Psalm 8:3, 4a)"

We truly are humbled at this wonderful blessing God has entrusted to us.

Let my teaching drop as the rain

I came across a verse in the Bible that goes with me into the classroom everyday:

"Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
For I proclaim the name of the LORD:
Ascribe greatness to our God."
Deuteronomy 32:1-3

I love the metaphor of children as tender grass and teaching as the dew that falls gently on that grass. I am an agent of Christ's reconciliation to the tender shoots that are growing in my classroom. I strive to be the conduit through which Christ pours out His wisdom into young minds.

Effort and Pleasure

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."
Johnson (quoted in Seward's Biographiana, found in Johnsonian Miscellanies, edited by G.B. Hill)

As I come to the end of my six weeks of student teaching at Beacon Christian School in a Grade 7/8 class, I have been reflecting on this quote by Samuel Johnson.

I saw this quote on a wall in the Writing Centre of Redeemer University College. It reminded me as a student that professors would much rather read work that I had really worked at.

Now I begin to find myself on the other side of the equation. Now I am becoming the teacher instead of the student; however, I am not really completely one or the other yet. As I grow into the role of teacher, this quote is beginning to take on new meaning.

I am beginning to realize that students will not put effort into their work unless the learning is meaningful. I am realizing this more and more each day. If teachers are willing to make the material mean something to students, they are usually more than willing to make the effort to do their best.

It is easy for teachers to just give handouts and assignments that do not take much effort. We can use the same material year after year, and it becomes a teaching of the curriculum instead of the student.

Johnson still speaks to me, reminding me that “what is generally assigned by teachers without effort is generally done by students without pleasure.”