This is not a fairy tale.
I wish.
No, this is the story of a teacher who is struggling.
Big time.
I’ve shared a few tidbits, and just when I think I’m turning a corner, I realize that what I’m actually doing is going around in circles.
I’ve been analyzing everything from my classroom management to my personal attitude.
Those are important, but I think I figured out another reason why I’m having issues.
I want everything to be unicorns and rainbows…you know…the technicolor version of teaching where the students come in singing joyfully, sit calmly, and produce magnificent works of art (aka, assignments that have their full names at the top and answers written in complete sentences).
That’s when the heavenly bodies laughed…
And laughed…
And laughed.
Today, when my final class ended, one of my students stayed behind to clean up.
She told me to hang in there…that several of the kids were in her other classes and that they always gave their teachers a hard time at the beginning of the year but that they WOULD SETTLE DOWN SOON.
That’s when a big truth hit me.
I’m expecting my current students to act like last year’s students acted AT THE END OF THE YEAR.
I have forgotten that all of the happy posts I wrote at the end of the year came as a result of MONTHS of student training and relationship building.
Sheesh.
For a teacher, I sure can be dumb sometimes.
I decided to write down my biggest issues…
It was amazing how God brought each item to mind.
When I finished with my list, I cut the papers into small pieces.
I wanted to burn them, but my match gave out before I could light the papers.
That was probably a good thing.
😀
Then, I sat down and read my devotion today…
And promptly cried…
I realized that my enemy isn’t my workload.
My enemy is Satan.
He is using every single thing I wrote on each slip of paper to discourage me.
It’s been working, folks.
I’ve been so down-in-the-mouth and negative…very uncharacteristic of me!!!
I’m usually a happy person…very upbeat.
I’m becoming that which I’ve never wanted to be, and I don’t like that.
At all.
I have forgotten that I have salvation through Christ’s death on the cross, and He has already won the victory for me.
Honestly, I have no reason to be discouraged because I possess eternal joy through the gift of God’s mercy…His Son.
Every single thing pales in comparison to that, and every single earthly challenge can and WILL be overcome.
I think I am going to buy a box of matches and make it a practice to put to the fire the things that are dragging me down…safely of course. 😉
I am also going to cut myself some slack.
If things aren’t perfect tomorrow, that doesn’t mean I won’t get my storybook ending.
I will, because like all fairy tales, the princess gets what she wants in the end.
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