Light...

I've been thinking a lot about light lately.  It started a couple of weeks ago at church.  Our deacon was giving his homily.  He was talking about Lent being a time of penance, and sometimes we need God's help to really repent fully.  Then he told a story that I as a lazy half-a$$ not-super-detailed homemaker could really identify with: 

• You know how (or maybe you don't know, if you're one of those people who actually cleans thoroughly and regularly) you can be sitting in your living room thinking, "OK.  This place looks pretty good.", and then someone opens the blinds to let in the natural light and all of a sudden it looks like you haven't cleaned or dusted in years!  Well through prayer and reflection during Lent (and all throughout the year), Christ's love and guidance is the natural light that shines on our lives.  We go from thinking, "OK.  I'm doing pretty good." to "Oh wow...I didn't really think of it that way...I need to reexamine/reevaluate some things."

From here, I started thinking about one of my favorite church songs, Christ Be Our Light:

None of this, though, is literal of course.  We're not visibly seeing our sins like you can visibly see the dust in the light...we're letting God guide our hearts.  This is what made me think of one of the songs we used to sing in youth group, Open the Eyes of My Heart:

These last couple of weeks have been a bit challenging at work.  And it's just that time of year:  spring fever, the last grading period, standardized testing season, graduation (for many) is almost here, summer on the horizon, etc.  I have heard numerous teachers, for numerous reasons talk about the light at the end of the tunnel.  I know that I have said it myself.  But I know that while it is a stressful/difficult time of year for us teachers, it is also a stressful/difficult time of year for our students.  We will be having a class meeting soon about the Power of Positivity...how to put a positive spin on our negative thoughts/stresses/worries...how to be less of a Negative Nelly and more of a Positive Polly...how to look for that silver lining or that light at the end of the tunnel.  Planning this class meeting kept me thinking about light and looking for quotes about light.  Naturally, with my teacher hat on (and OK, my true nerd-self hat on), I started with Harry Potter:

Then I started looking for others:

All this being said, let's all go out there and BE THE LIGHT.  Let God's light shine within us so that we can be a light to others!