rebelling against low expectations
(Branson Tri-Lake News) — To say 17-year-old Riley Banks is on a mission could be considered an understatement. The Branson teen has distributed hundreds of backpacks and school supplies to children in Kenya, provided more than 1,000 hygiene kits to girls there, helped provide a medical clinic for more than 1,300 people and opened a school this year. She does it all through her nonprofit...
(Huffington Post) — In the U.S., we tend to think of babies and young children as immature, incompetent beings. This is because of a long history of research in developmental psychology — especially the work of Jean Piaget — that viewed infants’ and children’s thinking as deficient compared to adults’. By studying his own two children, Piaget concluded that children...
“Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord...
(QUARTZ) — “I’m just not a math person.” We hear it all the time. And we’ve had enough. Because we believe that the idea of “math people” is the most self-destructive idea in America today. The truth is, you probably are a math person, and by thinking otherwise, you are possibly hamstringing your own career. Worse, you may be helping to perpetuate a pernicious myth that is harming underprivileged...
(Parade) — In a country that’s seen more than its share of violence, the fate of one teenager might not seem to count for much. But somehow Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan has managed to become an international inspiration. She was only 11 when she took on the Taliban, demanding that girls be given full access to school. Her campaign led to a blog for the BBC, a New York Times documentary, and a...
(KatherineBomkamp.com) — I had the opportunity to do a Google+ Hangout with a high school entrepreneurship class yesterday, and it felt great to be able to share my experiences with kids who were my age when I started out! I think out of all the opportunities I get to speak to different groups of people, talking with high schoolers is my favorite. This particular group of students was incredibly...
Take a deep breath in. Now breathe out. God is active in your life. Breathe in, again; breathe out. God is active in your life. Breathe in, breathe out. God is active. Every single breath that you breathe is a gift from God — a deliberate act of God’s will to give you yet one more breath of life, and another, and another. God is not done with you. Look all around you. There is life! Look up at...
When I was a little girl I memorized one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. Psalm 91, filled with encouragement for the believer to find refuge in God, held the mysterious truth of an invisible protector who hides us under the shadow of His wings and delivers us from all wicked forces. I’ve always been captivated by the spiritual realm, knowing one day it would be my permanent home...
(Boston Globe) — Sometimes, the world can seem overwhelming. Overbearing. If only you were tiny enough to build a house out of cards and climb inside, or escape to a miniature treehouse suspended between stalks of broccoli. Or better yet, just fly away. Fold a giant paper airplane, then grasp its thin fuselage for dear life and sail across a field into summertime. Such is Zev Hoover’s fanciful...
“I just feel so dead. I am so torn up inside. Worthless. Believing lies [and] feeling incapable of believing truth. But I just have to. I am desperate. Angry. I need God yet I feel extremely angry at God. I feel hopeless. This battle never ends. I just want to die.” I penned these words in my journal not two years ago, not nine months ago, but yesterday and they expressed what I wanted to scream...
rebelling against low expectations
