 Photo by cottonbro studio “Friends who become family create a sense of home wherever we go. They are the constants in our ever- changing lives. (Unknown) What would we do without friends? Some friends in our lives we consider to be acquaintances. They could be neighbours, colleagues, school friends or perhaps friends from your past. These people are important to us, but we do not often know them on a deeper level. Then there are those very special, exceptional people in our lives who go way beyond our definition of friendship. They change our lives in such profound ways that they have become our “chosen family.” These chosen few are the brothers from another mother, sisters from another mister, kindred spirit type of friends. Do you have some of those? I hope so. If you have some of those friends, consider yourself very lucky. These fine people are there for us through it all. When times get tough, they don’t walk out. Instead, they walk in, grab the Kleenex, hug us tightly, put the coffee on, and settle in for a good, long visit. These friends make an imprint on our hearts, and in our hearts is forever where they will stay.  Last year, I had a grade change at work. Normally, I teach second or third grade, but that year I was asked to take a 4/5 split class. It was a very rewarding experience for me and a great chance to grow as a teacher, teaching in the junior division. Every day we do Poetry Book time in Language Arts. Sometimes we have seasonal or funny poems and sometimes we have songs that we learn and study. At the beginning of the year, I introduced a song called Chosen Family sung by The One Voice Children’s Choir. I am totally obsessed with this group and love all their material but, this song is on a whole new level. My class quickly fell in love with this song, as did I and it just naturally became affectionately known as our class theme song. The song helped us bond as a class and reminded us that at school we are a class family, and we should always strive to act like one. This year, I thought I would introduce the song once again and much to my delight it was once again a HUGE hit! The kids ask to sing it constantly and every time I am away, and a supply teacher comes in, I have them sing it for the supply teacher. It is very touching and hard to keep a dry eye I tell you when they put their hands on their hearts and sing about being “chosen family.” Witnessing the sincere and heartfelt performance of this song is and will continue to be one of my most powerful moments as an elementary teacher.  Our family is blessed to have several people who fall into the “chosen family” category. One such person for me is my dear friend, Joni. Joni and I had been acquaintances for quite a while, but God brought us together to be so much more to each other through a special project. I had written my first book called Magic Kisses. It is a book about a young girl named Molly who finds hope and healing after dealing with the loss of her father. The manuscript sat on my computer for many years, as I was confused about how to bring it to life with pictures. I had long been an admirer of Joni’s beautiful photography skills, so I approached Joni to ask if she might consider taking photographs of a beautiful family who agreed to act as the characters in the book. Joni accepted with enthusiasm, and immediately became as passionate about my book as I was. Since the publishing of Magic Kisses, Joni has become my confidant, prayer partner, and dear friend that I can call on day or night for support. She knows me so well that she can tell by the mere sound of my voice, from the first greeting, how I am feeling. With open arms, she invites me into safe conversations where I can be myself and truly share my heart. I will be forever grateful that our initial collaboration blossomed into such an amazing and lasting friendship.  To purchase Magic Kisses click here. Joni is just one example of chosen family I have been blessed with. I am very involved in my incredible church, LakePoint Family Church and many church members there are my "chosen family" as well. No matter what I am dealing with, I can request to get the prayer chain going and know that they are sending support and prayers up for me immediately. They truly have my best interests at heart, and I am so extremely blessed to be a part of such a loving and compassionate church. I feel so happy and proud to have them in my corner. Often, I reflect on how amazing it is to have not only a wonderful family of my own, but so many dear friends as well. My heart is truly so full. But what about those who don’t have that? What about those who don’t have ANY friends and feel they are alone? One such person like that, we will call “Jim.” Jim was in a 12-step therapy group I was running in my role as a clinical social worker before I was a teacher. Jim would often share his extreme loneliness and hurt from his past and share how much our group had come to mean to him. One especially painful memory he shared was he had never had a birthday party growing up. Not because his parents couldn’t afford one, but because he was told from day one, he was a “mistake and not worth celebrating.” For this reason, he was dreading his upcoming birthday because of all the past hurts that went along with so many unacknowledged birthdays. It still brings a tear to my eye just recalling this story. One day, when Jim was unable to come to the group, we discussed what he shared. As he had said, his birthday was coming up soon, we decided that we would throw him a little surprise party complete with gifts and cake. We were giddy with excitement knowing what this little gesture would mean to him. Imagine his shock when he walked in and realized HE was being celebrated and this party was for HIM! Jim was speechless, emotional and thrilled with his first birthday party ever at 35 years of age. What an honour to be at that party and to be a small part of bringing healing to Jim’s broken heart.  One of my favourite worship choruses is Jireh by Maverick City Music. I love the line that says, “I’m already loved, I’m already chosen.” If you did not realize, we are all invited to be a part of God’s chosen family! Why He cared enough to call us His "chosen family" astounds me every day, but I am so glad He does. God is our heavenly father and trusted friend. He can be the BFF you never had. He can fill a void and provide a level of friendship that no earthly friend could ever fulfill. I appreciate you all so much and I am so grateful to have a chance to remind you of how incredible you are! I trust that my thoughts resonate with you, and you come away knowing that you are truly an incredibly loved and valued person. As always, I welcome an opportunity to continue this conversation, or pray with you! You know where to find me! Until next time, Dana Ephesians 1:4 ~ I am chosen. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Little Lessons Learned: If you find a great friend, you have hit the jackpot! Tags: chosen family, family, friend, friendship, Christian blog, Christian blogger, definition of chosen family, spiritual guidance
 More on Friendship? Click here for Friends Wanted ASAP Copyright: © 2024 littlelessonslearnedbydana
(Dana Romualdi) Dana Romualdi, the copyright holder reserves all rights to the content on the blog and website Little Lessons Learned by Dana, including the right to reproduce, distribute, and display the content. No content or photographs may be reproduced or modified. Blogs may be shared on social media platforms in their entirety only with full credit given to the owner. Any photographs used by other photographers are used with permission and are also protected. All Rights Reserved.
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 Photo by Yan Krukau “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge” Charles H. Spurgeon Our morning meetings in my elementary classroom have become a true highlight of my day. These meetings are a great way to get to know each other better and focus on bonding as a class. One of the favourite components of our Morning Meeting is our “Fun Fact” section that shares some little-known bits of trivia from this great big world of ours. Under the topic of fun facts, there have been some really cool and unique things mentioned. Here are a few, all courtesy of BBC Science Focus Magazine. Did you know that the average lifespan of a monarch butterfly is sadly 2 – 6 weeks? Are you aware that identical twins do not have the same fingerprints? How about this one... Giraffes are 30 times more likely to be hit by lightning than people. Don’t you feel so much smarter now knowing this random information? Perhaps not! Whether you knew these things or not, does not really make a difference in the grand scheme of things.  Photo by Magda Ehlers In our Animal unit study one year we were talking about the diets of animals, and I was introducing the vocabulary of herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. I had picked up a card game at the Dollar store where you had to name what type of eater each animal was. Some were clearly easier than others. I told the students the game was tricky, and as we were just introducing this topic to just have fun with it. Well... one little guy was NOT having it. He CLEARLY did NOT think it was all in good fun. He was in it to WIN it! When his teammate was asked what type of eater a water buffalo was, and the friend unfortunately got it wrong, he replied in pure frustration “Come on! A water buffalo is a herbivore! EVERYBODY KNOW DAT!” Finding it hard to keep a straight face at his comical reply, I said “Actually everyone does not know that because I certainly did not! Life is like that sometimes. We assume people should know certain things. We can get angry when they don’t know what we expect them to know. Surprisingly, what seems common knowledge to us, could actually be brand-new, mind-blowing information to someone else. Shocking I know, but true. We could go our whole lives not needing to know that the town with the longest name ever is named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, (true story) but there are certain things that people absolutely do need to know.  Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko Amongst those NEED-TO-KNOW things is you need to know what the almighty God of the universe thinks about you. Not everyone is familiar with the Bible and I completely respect that. I am very proud and honoured to share what the Bible says about you. In the Bible God says so much about us, but I will highlight five things in particular. You are not alone.The Bible speaks of Jesus as the "friend that sticks closer than a brother." It also states that He will never leave us or forsake us. It is so reassuring to know that when you put your trust in Him, He will never leave you high and dry. You never have to worry where He went when the times get tough, because as always, He is right by you side 24/7. *(Proverbs 18:24, Deuteronomy 31:8) * You are always on God’s mind.This one blows me away! The God of the universe is thinking of ME? With everything that He is in charge of each and every day, we are still never absent from His thoughts. Now that is a powerful truth for sure! * (Psalms 139 – 17-18) *  You are God’s Masterpiece created with a unique purpose.I remember a pastor saying once in a wonderful sermon, that your purpose came first, and then God created you specifically to fulfill it! It really resonated with me especially on the days that I felt like a complete failure. We are all a work in progress and it is never the case that God is thinking, so what am I going to do with this one? It is the exact opposite actually. He believes in us implicitly and is confident that we can fulfill our unique destiny in Christ. * (Ephesians 2:10) * Every second He loves you.God's love is unconditional. He could never love you any more or any less than He does right now. You can rest in that assurance that you will not fall from grace with God. He loves you period. Drop the mic! * (Jeremiah 31: 3) *  Photo by Cherith Runyon on Unsplash You are Forgiven and Free!You are forgiven and free! All you have to do is ask God to forgive your sins. Every sin that we have or ever will commit was covered when Jesus went to the cross for us. Also the Bible tells us that not only does He forgive us, but He also throws our sins into the sea of His forgetfulness. Beyond that, my sweet Mom would always say this cute and true ending to this beautiful forgiveness story. She would say and "THEN He posts a NO FISHING sign" to keep us moving in the RIGHT direction! * ( Jeremiah 31:34, Micah 7:19) * Well my friends, I don't know if this is new information for you, or simply a great reminder. My question for you now though is, now that you know these beautiful truths and you do know "dat" what will you do with it? As always, I welcome an opportunity to pray with you or continue this important conversation. I can be reached at [email protected]. Until next time, Dana Little Lesson Learned: You need to know that God thinks you are incredibly special and you are so dearly loved. Tags: trivia, Bible teaching, self esteem, Bible verses, Who we are in Christ, Christian blogger, Christian blogger, elementary teaching, forgiveness, God's love
Copyright: © 2024 littlelessonslearnedbydana
(Dana Romualdi) Dana Romualdi, the copyright holder reserves all rights to the content on the blog and website Little Lessons Learned by Dana, including the right to reproduce, distribute, and display the content. No content or photographs may be reproduced or modified. Blogs may be shared on social media platforms in their entirety only with full credit given to the owner. Any photographs used by other photographers are used with permission and are also protected. All Rights Reserved.  Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash “At the end of the day, we want love and to feel love.” John Bellion Valentine’s Day. It is the holiday that comes every February 14th, whether we like it or not. For some of us, it is a celebratory day where we are reminded of the love that we are privileged to experience daily and for others, well... it just plain stings. This day hits hard as it reinforces the longing of our hearts to find that special kind of love you seem to only hear about in epic love stories and romantic movies. Years ago, when I was “super single” as they say these days, I was once again gearing up for my traditional lonely, and broken-hearted Valentine’s Day. This year though, a very peculiar thing happened. My doorbell rang two weeks before Valentine’s Day and a young delivery man stood there with a HUGE, gorgeous bouquet of red roses for ME! Confused, yet very excited, I couldn’t wait to see who they were from! The card simply said “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dana!” At the time, I didn’t know what to think of this, but I was intrigued that SOMEONE was at least thinking of me at this time of year. My curiosity got the better of me and I called the florist who had sent them to inquire about who the mystery sender was. They firmly replied that the sender gave explicit instructions and wished to remain anonymous. Fast forward to the next week. My doorbell rang and here once again from a different florist came an even lovelier bouquet of roses. "Ok, buddy," I thought, "Now you really have my attention." My heart was pounding, yet much to my dismay the unsigned card said yet again, the same thing: “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dana!” As this was from a different florist, I called to inquire about the sender once again, and had the exact. same. response. My man of mystery was indeed a SECRET admirer and certainly wished to keep it that way. One week later my doorbell rings, again. It is now Valentine’s Day! Who should be at my door you might ask? Yes, you guessed it, another delivery person with the BIGGEST bouquet of roses known to man! I thought THIS IS IT! THE BIG REVEAL! I thought it was Valentine’s Day after all. It was again of course, from a different florist. I was experiencing such a mixed bag of emotions. I felt flattered, excited, confused and truth be told a bit creeped out. But now I felt that would all be behind me when I read this card. I just knew my mystery man would be revealed and I could not wait. With trembling hands, I open the UNSIGNED card which once again read “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dana.” I called the new florist expressing my extreme frustration, yet the sympathetic florist as per usual, had no news to share about my secretive, potential suitor. My silent Casanova NEVER materialized. To this day, I have no idea who he was. Some have said it was my husband Phil, yet that was quite impossible because we had not met yet. I found it odd and incredibly frustrating that this man would go to so much trouble, and spend so much money, yet never reveal himself! I was lonely and broken hearted once again on Valentine’s Day, and despite three beautiful bouquets of long stem red roses, there was STILL no love connection for me.  My husband Phil and I have been married over thirty years. Many have asked how we met. It is quite a funny, little story, how our unique love connection came to be. I needed a summer job and was asked to be his mom’s housekeeper. It is a job I didn’t really want, but God had it all planned out. As I was vaccuuming one day, in walked the sweetest guy I have ever met. He had come home during his lunch hour and asked if I would like to visit with him. We clicked right away and before you know it, I walked away that summer with a lot more than some money to put towards university, but my future husband as well! Who would have known? Not me, that is for sure. You see, life has a way of surprising us sometimes. I thought my epic love story was coming through three bouquets of roses, that had a Prince Charming waiting there for me at the end. Instead, I found my love connection while, scrubbing toilets and mopping floors right next to who God had handpicked to be my future mother-in-law. No matter what we are looking for, it often takes time to find it. We live in a society where we are so used to getting everything we want right away. The Bible says that God knows the desires of our hearts and He is always working behind the scenes to meet our needs. There is a time for everything, and Valentine’s Day is truly about so much more than romantic love. It is also a celebration of ALL the people we love, like family and special friends.  Giving Valentine cards is a big deal in my classroom. It is always exciting to see the excitement that the kids feel giving and receiving them. I once received a love note from an ESL student that said in her limited English, I love you Big, Big, Big! It really spoke to me because I thought “Isn’t that just like our God?” He too loves us Big, Big, Big! He is truly crazy about us and loved us so much that He died for us on the cross WHILE we were yet sinners. Please know that whatever your heart is wishing for today whether it be regarding Valentine's Day or life in general, if it has not come to fruition, this does not mean that God does not love you or you are forgotten. The Bible says in Isaiah 49:16, I have written your name on the palm of my hand. That sounds like a big, big love to me! Please know that not only does God love you bigtime, but I do too. I am so honoured that you have come to my little corner of the internet and spent some time with me. As always, I welcome an opportunity to pray with you or continue the conversation further regarding how you can experience for yourself this amazing love that only comes from God. Believe me it will fill your cup to overflowing not just on Valentines Day, but 365 days a year and that my friend is the best love connection of all! Until next time, Sending so much love, Dana XO Romans 5:8 NIV : But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Little Lesson Learned: There is a big love from God waiting for all of us. Reach out and take it today. Copyright © 2024 littlelessonslearnedbydana (Dana Romualdi) Dana Romualdi, the copyright holder reserves all rights to the content on the blog and website Little Lessons Learned by Dana, including the right to reproduce, distribute, and display the content. No content or photographs may be reproduced or modified. Blogs may be shared on social media platforms in their entirety only with full credit given to the owner. Any photographs used by other photographers are used with permission and are also protected. All Rights Reserved. Tags: love connection, love, Valentine's Day, valentines, dating, marriage, love story, encouragement, God's love, Christian blog, Christian blogs, Christian blogger, life advice, personal development, hope, patience
“Joy: the kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” ~ David Steindl – Rast Check out part one in this series: |
AuthorDana Romualdi is a Canadian elementary teacher, social worker, blogger, author, motivational speaker and recording artist. She has a passion for helping others and spreading much-needed encouragement. She lives in Canada with her husband and two grown children. When she is not working in the classroom or blogging, she enjoys drinking coffee, watching Netflix and reading great books. |  The joys of my life: Tyler and Shannon, now 25 and 28. |  Click here for Where Joy Lives Part One in the Joy Series |
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