From the beginning America valued education. Thomas Jefferson was a vocal proponent of public education as was Benjamin Franklin, Horace Mann and many others. In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance mandating public education. One of its authors, Nathan Dane wrote “schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged”. He could not have…
For the last eighteen days, I have been calling my readers/followers to intercede for America. I have been posting brief prayer emphasis on my face book page at TonyaAnn, Writer from David Kubal’s book We Declare: 31 Days of Intercession for America. It is a call to declare the freedoms that God has already given…
If we believe in a Sovereign God and we believe the Bible to be his infallible Word, politics are hard. The state of our country is hard. Romans 13:1 says “there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Every group of God fearing believers have…
I’m reading the chronological Bible this year and it’s fitting that during this toxic political climate that I’m in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. So many mornings I read my assigned chapters and I’m shocked at how Old Testament Israel mimics America. According to Jeremiah, the country was immersed in adultery and lust. The people couldn’t trust…
I LOVE children’s books and literature. When I was teaching one of my favorite books to share was Laurie Halse Anderson’s Thank you, Sarah. I usually included it as part of my November curriculum. The kids were always amazed, (as was I the first time) to hear the story of Sarah and how she fought…
I ordered a book last year called Reclaim a Generation by Cheryl Sacks. It is a 21 day prayer guide for schools. It’s different from the prayer guides we see in graphic posts on face book. I kept thinking about it over the past few weeks. Every morning in prayer, it came to mind. As…
It happened two weeks ago, RFK training. Leadership had decided how many boys and girls to take to camp this year. How many neglected and abused kids can we give a week of happy memories. Just kids. We got their names. Faceless, personality less, names. Mostly names we’ve never heard before and would never have…
Thirty plus years ago, I was excited to accept the position of Girls Ministries director at a local church. The opportunity arose to take an overnight trip with the girls and several adults. I was confused as one after another they approached with the question, “Do we have to stop and take pictures of old…
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I’ve been blessed to be part of some stories for a season. The life of a teacher. Teachers change communities every year as one class moves on and another takes its place. I was a…
Last summer , I drove over two thousand miles in 17 days. A trip I’ve done several times before. As I planned my return, I mapped a different route from OKC to Denver, but circumstances sent me back to boring, flat land I35 to I70 across Kansas. It was the same scenery; the same gas…
