The Longest Nine Short Weeks

Today marks the first day of the last quarter. I have 9 weeks of school left in my first year of teaching. And just like when I was a student, it is going by all too fast and all too slow. I could not have had a better orientation to the teaching profession than I have had this past year. Between the people I work with and the kids I get to invest in, this has been wonderful; challenging but wonderful. I have had days when I sit in my chair at the dismissal bells and marvel at how wonderful this profession is. On the other hand, there have been days that I would not relive again for all the money in the world.

All this to say, I have nine weeks with these students. Sure, some of them (Molly) I will never "get rid of". We have already planned wonderful travels for all of her graduations. But there are other students that I have for the next nine weeks and that is it. That is the mindset that I am trying to keep when they are driving me up a wall; all I get are these next nine weeks. Any vision or hope I can speak into their lives, I better do it now. Encouragement I want to give them, confidence I can build up, all of that has to be done now. I don't get a second chance with them. So tomorrow, when I feel like I did in fifth bell and I want to kick half of the class out, I will attempt instead to pull kids aside and cast vision for what school could be. I know, that sounds so nerdy. But, for some of my students, it could be the one time that someone stops yelling and instead invests, speaks vision, and calls them to more and better. And that could make these nine weeks priceless.

A Team Training

There is something to the air in Virginia that makes it easier to breathe. Something about the blue of the mountains that makes the stress fade away. I was just able to spend three days in Virginia with some of my favorite people in the world. I was able to bask in the love of those people. There is very little that I needed more this week than that. To share my life with friends and family, to be encouraged in the ministry, to prepare for what is to come this summer.

I can't help but look at these mountains (that I sadly did not get to hike this trip) and see how great my God is. It is at times like that, even if it is just a picture, that I am reassured of my future. What it entails, well I don't know that. But I do know that it will be something designed to glorify him, and I can't say I've ever been angry about that.

Corbin, KY

I met a boy when I was about 13. He almost mowed down a woman trying to walk backwards to see me and my friends. I was a goner.
Through the years, we have somehow managed to stay in touch. Despite the fact that we once scheduled IM "dates" and had to buy long-distance phone cards, we kept up. The four hour drive, sometimes shorter although now longer, didn't keep us from meeting up. And now, roughly 13 years later, we are still friends. And on top of that, he has grown up to be an amazing man who loves the Lord. He took time today, in the midst of his chaos, to comfort and reassure me. That is the kind of friend that everyone wants, but we can rarely find. One who, in the middle of their own storms, step away to speak calm truth into ours. I'm glad that I have this friend. I'm glad that as an immature 13 year old girl, I somehow spotted a boy who would turn into this kind of man.