End of summer

Well, it's that time of year. Time for buying pencils and paper, for opening textbooks and starting homework...

Except that it is my first time as the teacher!

To recap, I student taught last fall, was hired in January, and this will be my first full school year as a teacher.

Eeek!

:-)

As much as I am terrified (for some unknown reason) to be entering into the next year, I am excited to be getting back into the swing of things. We finished Band Camp yesterday, and it was a fantastic week! The heat index stayed (relatively) low, so we were able to get more done than we anticipated! The kids were great- energetic, encouraging to others, excited about the year, and overall good sports about the heat- which makes our job as staff and teachers easier, and much more enjoyable!

(how many more "E" words could I have thrown into that last sentence?!?!)

However afraid I might be about starting the new school year, I know this is where I am supposed to be and that this is what I am supposed to be doing right now.

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." (Coll. 3:23-24, ESV)

This verse reminds me to, whatever I do- at school, at home, at Kroger or Walmart- show the world His love. THIS statement makes me thing of for KING & COUNTRY's latest single, Proof of Your Love. The chorus begins:

So let my life be the proof
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You
And what You're made of

And as a bonus, the song also has a monologue of one of the band members speaking from The Message's 1 Cor. 13:1-7. This is the beginning of the "Love Chapter" and is one of my favorite verses of all time. I love the wording in that opening sentence- human eloquence and angelic ecstacy. Knowing that I can speak with the best intentions or stand in front of a classroom ready to teach, and unless I am doing what I do out of love, then I might as well be doing nothing. No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Right now in my husband's and my world, we are struggling a bit. His position was cut at the school he taught at last year and nothing has opened up. We are trusting that a job will open, and we KNOW that something will come available, in the teaching field or not. Faith is running our lives now, it seems, and as frightning that may be to some, we know we are being watched and taken care of. While our bank account may be pushing it next month, we are rich in love- for each other, for our friends and family, and in God's LOVE for us.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

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