Mrs. Hinky-Dink has arrived!

As you may have noticed, I have a new hairdo. I have also been experimenting with contacts and decided I would wear them too when I went to school the next day with my "new look." I knew I was in shock over the new me, but I hadn’t really anticipated how my 4th graders would react when they saw me the following day. There were various comments and shocked looks and suddenly one of them exclaimed, “Who are you and what have you done with Mrs. Priest?!?” Well, me being somene who is always up for a little fun and secretly always wanted to be an actress (or a preacher) responded, “Didn’t she tell you I would be subbing for her today? I’m her identical twin sister, Mrs. Hinky-Dink!” That kicked off what would be a two hour long practical joke that ended with an awesome God moment. They quizzed me intensely and I was very impressed with the thoroughness of their questioning, but for every question from “How did I know their names already” to “How come my jewelry matched hers identically”, I came back each time with quick and easy logical answers. I created a complete new identity for myself being careful to take notes on where I said I lived, taught school, etc… so I wouldn’t get myself confused! By the time I took them to their computer class and dropped them off, I had several of them so confused they were almost convinced I was my own identical twin sister! They simply could not find a reason to doubt my story even though they knew deep down in their hearts that something just didn’t add up. When I picked them up from the computer class, I had put my glasses back on and said, “Oh, I’m so glad to see you guys! Did you enjoy meeting my twin sister?!?” They were so confused and thinking I was really quite crazy by now! We went back to class and started our Bible lesson. We have been studying Abraham and what it means to have faith. I confessed that I was indeed me and had been the whole morning. We talked about that even though they knew deep down in their hearts that it had to be me, I was able to cause them to doubt when I could answer every question they posed to me with a deceitful answer and be quite convincing too! I told them that sometimes the world will try to convince you that there really isn’t a God. That no one could possibly love you enough to die for you. That heaven and eternity don’t really exist, it’s just something adults make up to try and make kids mind and be good. I told them faith is knowing deep down in your heart that God does really exist, that He does love you so much He died for you so that you can spend all of “happily ever after” with Him in heaven, and believing it no matter what the world says. I told them to never doubt what they know deep down in their hearts to be true and they too would have the faith of Abraham! Thank you God for teachable moments!