Milestones

Did you know that there are only five months standing between me and the end of the school year?  Yep, you read that right, February, March, April, May and June.   5 months down, 5 months to go. 

I decided in December that I needed to figure out some way to teach my students about time concepts such as years, months, and days of the week.  Lets just say I have become quite the expert since then.    Initially I was intimidated by the thought of having to clearly and consistently teach these concepts for the rest of the year, but now I am thoroughly enjoying passing on something that is deeply rooted in how I process life; milestones.  We visit our calendar every day and talk about 'yesterday. today and tomorrow'.   In those moments it's become incredibly important to me to celebrate yesterday, build excitement for today and anticipate tomorrow.  

That got me thinking - most often, the most meaningful milestones in life are the ones we have to look for, not the ones we can obviously see.   If I truly believe that the hand of the Lord is placed securely on my life then there will never be a day that doesn't hold significance. 

As I let my faith in the unseen replace all of the feelings I have built up and invested in my tangible reality, I feel the Lord pulling me back to my relationships.   After all, life is valuable because of relationships not because of performance.  This is true first and foremost in our relationship with the Lord.  He loved us while we were yet sinners and died just so that we could enter into a relationship with Him. I bring this up because I leave work most days feeling like I need to perform better.  Lets face it: I am often disappointed with my performance as a teacher because  I have struggled to unlock concepts like telling time, writing with proper punctuation and the mechanics of reading (among many, many other things).   However, the relationships I have created in my classroom are deeply significant to me and are far more valuable to the Lord than telling time.    These children enrich my life in ways I could have never asked for, expected or imagined.   They love me well and they trust me with things that are hard for them.   In return, I have had to trust them with things that are hard for me (aka - teaching math).  Learning is hard, but trust is priceless.   At the end of the day I think we can agree that trust is far more significant that learning, but is perhaps as less obvious milestone.   

I have 5 months left to continue to build into the lives of my students.   Today, I am celebrating yesterday and looking forward to all that the Lord will accomplish as I anticipate tomorrow.