Dani Does Literacy

In reflecting on my secondary literacy experiences, I feel that most, if not all of my teachers were quite good. They introduced me to many pieces of classic literature like, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights, that I may have never picked up on my own at that age. The very first book that I read in 6 th grade was Lord of the Flies. It was unbelievably different than anything I had read up to that point. It was my first time reading a book that challenged my outlook on human nature. It was the first book that taught me that authors write books for more reasons than to entertain or inform .They write to expose us to new ways of thinking and to serve as mirror to our souls and society.   Although my teachers were good overall, there is one particular teacher that stands out above the rest. Mrs. Powell was my 8 th grade English teacher. She read-aloud to us every day. The very first book she read aloud to us was Huckleberry Finn. I’ll admit th...

The word risk isn’t the word I chose for this year, it’s the word that God chose for me. I’ll be honest and say that it doesn’t really suit me much! I would like to consider myself much more of a “joy” or “peace” kind of girl, but God, in all His infinite wisdom (and humor) brought a word I’ve been running from my entire life, front and center while reading the book, Anything, by Jennie Allen. In one part of the book Jennie posed a question to her professor about the different ways in which we can get to know God. This was his response: He began by listing all the ways we grow or know God: prayer, studying Scripture, church, worship, experiences, suffering, confession, community, and on and on. Then he said, “But obviously each of these is unpredictable…many people who study the Bible never find God. Many people who go to church never really know him. The only exercise that works 100% of the time to draw one close to the real God is risk... To risk is to be willing place your l...