Titus 2 Tuesdays

A new host is in town for Titus 2 Tuesdays...my good bloggy friend Bethany has taken over while Shanda takes a bit of a break. So make sure to go to her blog and link up for today!

(Isn't it funny how that works, by the way? I have a few friends through these blog relationships who I feel like I would hang out with on a regular basis if we lived close enough!)

Anywho.

Today I'm going to introduce you to Emalie. Emalie and I met years ago when I was teaching. She was a good friend of my friend Martell.

Emalie came back to the classroom a couple of years later, and in God's perfect placement landed at the middle school where I was teaching. She inspired me to be more patient, more kind, and more loving in my approach to my students...not that I wasn't those things before. Emalie has a way of looking at people and situations in the best light possible. She complimented me on how patient, kind, loving and wonderful I was in the classroom...and it made me want to be MORE of those things. (if that makes sense)

She was the classroom I'd stop into on my way out of the building that last year when things were rough, if I needed to vent/cry/laugh. She always had a funny story to tell, or a listening ear.

Emalie is one of my biggest fans, which means a lot. She asked me to teach her 3 granddaughters piano lessons about 3 years ago, and that relationship has continued to this day. I get to see Emalie at least once a week these days, and though she's moved on to a different position in a different school and I am...well, doing whatever I'm doing...we still find time to connect. Often she'll meet me at the door when I come to teach with a bowl of soup or a hot cup of tea. She's had me come to her church to teach the youth group there how to make jewelry for a fundraising project. And she's still that listening ear or funny story I need.

I'll never forget the email from her telling the story of driving a couple of students home when a fire broke out in the backseat of her van (?!?!?) and they ended up stamping it out with the box of underwear she had collected for some ministry...

That's Emalie :-)