"When Christ who is your life"

The Maya Angelou quote from my last post is still weighing

heavy on my heart. Here's the quote again, "A women's

heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have

to seek Him first to find her.". Well, man or no man I long

to say..."I have hidden your word in my heart..." Ps 119:11.

For the first time in a long time my mind and my heart are

in line on this. Either my mind is being lazy or my heart

is not into it but in this moment they are in agreement so I

have to follow.

When I decided to return to college I prayed and asked God

to give me a career driven by passion. Let me tell you He

did just that. I want to tell you about a little girl named
Hannah that God introduced me to.....this is an email I sent

to a friend....

In the happenings of this week something profound and

life changing occurred in my life and I had to share with you.

I taught a 21 month old nonverbal little girl how to

communicate with the world through sign language. It was

a consistent effort on a lot of people's part but I have put in

the most hours. I'm not trying to boast except in the Lord...

because He gave me the ability. I can't believe I'm fixing to

say this but I have found what I was created for.... wow that's

hard to say without crying. That little girl will never know

me but I've helped totally change her world. That is the most

incredible feeling in the world. The moment she moved those

little fingers into the correct way to tell me what she wanted...

she changed both our lives forever.

I love this part of my job- we call it manding. Here is the short

version of the steps to manding. Find things/activities that

motivate them these things become your mands. Next create

the sings/mands for the items. Normally teaching goes as this:

For a verbal child they start off with Echoic behavior meaning

they are repeating your words but are not able to spontaneously

say them.

For a nonverbal child they learn the signs but until they learn

them most of them scroll. Scrolling is like a guessing game-

trying to figure out what sign goes with what item.

So then we must move to doing transfer trials which is you sign

or say and the child repeats then you delay giving item until

child says or signs again.

Now, I want to go back to Echoic- at this stage we usually start

celebrating because they are getting it and this is the first step

for them. However, until the child realizes and makes a

connection that the word/sign has a meaning/power to it

then it's never going to be useful.

I've been thinking a lot about that this in terms of the Christian

walk. Beginning stages Echoic- hearing some things, memorize

some scriptures but until the Word becomes spontaneous/

understood there's no meaning or purpose behind it.

A second thing that's important for manding training is they

need good visual perception. So they can focus/see what you

are doing with your hands. This is where I am Spiritually.

God is trying right now to say or show me something and I

need to focus in on Him... I need to hear His voice. Sooooo

I've decided to fast. I feel that what I need to fast is the

computer....so I'll be gone for a couple of weeks. (There is

only one thing that I'll be checking in on and that's how a

fellow blog sister comes out on some test results.)

I'll end for now with Col. 3:1-4 from the Message....

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life

with Christ, act like it. Persue the things over which Christ

presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed

with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert

to what is going on around Christ- that's where the action

is. See things from His perspective."

Love you all......