Teaching is my passion and I am humbled because of it.

Humbled by how our plans are never better than HIS plans. - I am finally back to teaching at my dream grade level 2nd grade!

Humbled by how loved I am- never knew I had so many people who love me enough to say they were thinking of me on the 1st day of school

Humbled by my inability to shake that "new teacher" feeling after 10 years of teaching-Only God knew I would need it to remain close to HIM and give HIM the credit

All of these lessons came the first day of school. Many of you have gotten a "back to school" email from me in the past on the night before the first day of school. I fully intended on writing one and even sat down Sunday night to compose it, but didn't feel like the timing was right. Sure glad I didn't run ahead because I know I would had missed out on these sweet blessings.

I didn't go on any big mission trips this summer although my heart longed to go. I wrestled a lot with God about the idea of being lazy, but He continued to remind me to be still and relax for His purpose. I am learning who I am is not about what I do and He wanted to drive that home this summer. So all of that leads me to this email already a week into the school year. I am reminded again I am called to teach! I was blessed to know when I was little what I wanted to be when I grew up (although my poster from elementary school says I wanted to be a nurse!) Teaching is my passion, it brings me great joy. So despite the fact that I try and convince myself that other things sound more noble, for now this is what I am called to do and I love it.

I am going to continue to update my blog throughout the year http://truthlovegrace.blogspot.com/ but when I started these emails a few years back it was because I had friends who were missionaries. They would send updates to me about specific prayer requests about their area of the world. It was in reading one of these and trying to put myself on mission somewhere else that I realized I had already been sent somewhere....my own school! Although I have lost focus, I would like to start sending these emails more consistently on behalf of all teacher. So if have a desire to pray for teachers or even just for me and want to continue to get emails from me this year, please email me back.

Below are the verses I taped up around my room behind posters and decorations. I also included a picture of my room, but more will be on my blog. Thanks for being apart of my life!

Romans 10:13-15; Isaiah 61:3; Ps 5:11-12; Isaiah 64:4; Psalms 118:19-24; Psalms 18:16-19; Psalms 16:5-6; Psalms 31:6-8; 2 Corinthains 5:17-21; 1 Peter 3:15-16

Watching her grow

After months of getting to hold her and small times for people to leave us alone...this was the first "real" babysitting I got to do for Bailey.  She was just starting to sit up, but not able to sit on her own.  With Aunt Lisa's couch pillows and borrowed toys from Nana's house, we had a blast while the mom, dad, and grandparents were taking care of other things.

Although she won't sit for long any more, this was Bailey's first moment at the piano.  It was so fun to watch her tap out the keys and "sing" along.

Throwing her in the air and watching her squeal, we watched as she also began to find pure delight in bouncing on your lap. I was excited to buy this jumper and watch her go.

The process of walking is an amazing thing to see as it happens months before the actual first steps.  In fact, looking back on all of these pictures I realized how blessed I was to be able to see her through all of these stages and compare it to our own "walk" with God.  Babies gain the muscles needed to hold up their head, so they can transition into laying on their tummies for crawling and sitting up on their own.  Before watching Bailey "learn" to walk, I thought the sitting was the most important step before walking, but I actually realized it's when they are on their tummies learning to roll over that is most important.  If babies never learn to roll over and gain those muscles, then during those awkward crawling moments when they need to sit up and turn around they can't get their leg under them quite right.  It's at those times we have seen it happen with babies, their arms get stuck and their legs are tangled in just a way that makes it impossible to move, that's when they flop face first onto the floor. How many times have I done the same things, only whined and complained even more about the process to God.  He's trying to teach me to "walk" with him, only I'm trying to run before I have the skills and muscles to turn around.  Much like parents it would be easy for Him to scoop me up and make life so easy I never learn anything.  We don't have a Father whose mean enough to let us suffer, but loving enough to grow our muscles stronger so we can run with Him. 

Why crawl before we walk? We all knew Bailey wouldn't crawl for very long because all she wanted to do was jump and stand.  It's the arms that are gaining strength to pull up on objects so they can stand during the crawling process.  Here's a picture of her pulling up, shortly after Nana bought her a walker and she took off.  Balance is the last, most important skill in walking.  Observing Bailey I realized you first learn to balance by standing in one place.  The first moment I saw her doing this was in her parent's front yard.  She didn't like her feet touching the grass, so she didn't want to move when I stood her up.  Distracted long enough by a cell phone and she was standing for a few minutes on her own. Do our arms have the same strength or do we give in too soon and stop "crawling" letting our weakness keep us on the floor instead of taking adventures? Most of the times God is calling me to be still, I feel like I am not doing anything but looking at this process of walking I can see how standing still does require action. This sweetness is now running places and I love keep up with her!