Other than fighting a cold, I have been busy playing hockey (although I actually called in a spare to play for me yesterday because I was too sick). If anyone is interested, there is an article in the Saskatoon Express describing Saskatoon 60 Plus league.
David arrives tomorrow from Toronto. We are having an Opheim Family get together brunch on Sunday at the Willows Country Club. On Sunday night, I will attending Mary's Fireside Singers concert at TCU Place. On Friday, December 23, we leave for Fernie for a weekend of skiiing and will return on Boxing Day.
Last night, Haley, Audrey, and I attended a service of remembrance at Redeemer Lutheran. We lit a candle for Judy and had a meaningful time of remembering.
Principal's Message: (I am not sure whether I shared this one before)
Your actions are affected by your
feelings. Your feelings are affected by
the way you think. What you think is
affected by situations that happen to you.
Let us go backward. Situation – Thought – Feeling - Action. Situations cannot always be controlled. Sometimes things happen to you that you could
not control. They just happen. The one thing you can control is what you
think. Thinking is a decision you
make. You can choose a negative feeling
leading to a negative action or you can choose a positive feeling leading to a
negative action. I have another name for
negative thinking. I call it “stinking
thinking”.
There was a time when I used to
believe people were wrong to feel upset, jealous, envious, angry, and
depressed, but I came to realize that feelings are neither right nor
wrong. It is how you feel. What I spend a lot of time doing as an
educator is finding out what thought patterns lead students to feel the way they
do. For instance, when a child is being
bullied, he/she may think, “I did something that invited abuse so I am getting
what I deserve, no one loves me and no one cares for me, everyone is talking
behind my back, I am junk, there is no help, and there is no way out.” When a child thinks that way, they will
become depressed, there will be more abuse, and the bullying will usually
escalate. In this case, we need stamp
out the “stinking thinking” and let children know they deserve respect, they
are loved, you cannot control what others do, but you can control what you
think, there is help, and there is a way out.
When you start to think positively, positive results are more likely to
follow.
Indeed, there are other positive
thoughts that we should plant in children’s minds such as:
If I want to succeed in school,
athletics, arts, technologies, or anything else in life, then I will have to
work hard, learn from failure, overcome adversity, ask for help when necessary,
and accept responsibility for my actions.
It is a privilege to attend
school. Knowledge is power.
Following the path of least
resistance could lead you off a cliff.
If I want to have friends, then I
must be a friend. I must think of others
and do to them what I would have them do unto me.
I
am not always right. There are times
when I need to say, “You were right. I
was wrong. I am sorry.”
Twenty
years from now, no one will remember the score in this soccer game, but we will
remember every poor sport we went to school with.
Yes, children need your help to
stamp out “stinking thinking”. We need
to help them adjust their thinking just as we need to adjust our own thinking
to come up with the positive thought that will lead to positive action. In this life, they will have tribulation, but
the thoughts they choose will determine whether they live victoriously or live
a defeated life. Remember, pain is
inevitable. Misery is optional.
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