November is tough for me. It tends to be the first slump in a school year (followed by another in February). The semester is starting to feel long, and Christmas break is still a month away. Students complain of too much homework, and teachers complain of unrequiting students (yes, I made up a word). As a Middle School staff, it's been our prayer these last few weeks to maintain an atmosphere of love and grace at school. It's so easy when you're tired and frustrated to slip into a legalistic mode where rule-keeping and survival are the orders of the day, so our desire was to continue enjoying our students and help them thrive. But how do you measure something like that? How do you know if students are seeing your attempt to be grace-filled?
I had a couple of beautiful moments that reminded me of why it is worth it to (try to) live every moment in God's joy rather than the exhaustion of the month of November. The first was a sweet note from an anonymous student in my box. In homeroom one morning, I prayed something along the lines of "Help us run to you, not just when we need you, but all the time." Check out the card of enormous encouragement in the picture below. I know with all my heart that kids will never look to me and see someone who has it all together, who has all the answers. My biggest prayer is that if and when they look, they'll see someone simply trying to love God.
The other moment of "Hooray, this is worth it all" came last night in the car. I was driving four 8th grade girls to their class party at an ice skating rink. Somewhat out of the blue, ME asked a question out loud. "How do you know when God is calling you to do something?" The other girls probed a bit, and she was thinking about how her parents left Korea for the Philippines under the guise of "God called us," and then again the move to Turkey, and now the fact that she and her brother attend BFA in yet another country - all because God had told her parents they had a job to do. The other girls shared similar stories of how their parents left their countries (Canada, USA, and Switzerland) to complete their missions, but none of them could really say either what "being called" truly meant. I got to share my story of how I thought I was heading to China and the Lord redirected my steps while also making use of my random gifts (German, teaching, and MK-ness) all in my mission: to serve at BFA.
The girls went on to share of some of the blessings they've already seen come out of their parents' work or the things in their own lives that were impacted by this calling to be an MK: challenges overcome, friendships old and new, a growing family around the world, and a closer walk with God. As I squinted in the dark to spot the Ice Rink sign, all I could think is "This is why I do what I do. Conversations like this make everything worth it!"
The girls on the far right and in the center were in my car. :-)
