Time and Chance

Chance. 

By definition chance is "the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled; a possibility or probability of anything happening". 

Anything. Uncontrolled. Absence of understanding. 

Chance. 

Don't tell the grieving "everything happens for a reason". Not everything does. 

Some things just happen. 

Time and chance happen to us all. 

And sometimes, often times, time and chance are really, really tough. 

But God is there. And there is no chance too big for God to overcome. 

He wins in the end, you know.

He can take your hard situation that you didn't deserve, and help you through it if you'll turn to Him.

He can take that run of bad choices you made and the tough spot they put you in, and use it for His glory as you are made new in Him if you'll let Him. 

He gives second chances. He offers retreat. And in the end? He'll be victorious. 

Time and chance happen to us all - but also, 

So hold on to Him. Because He can get you through the moments when time and chance are negative. 

Indeed, the only thing that can overcome time and chance is the sureness of, and security we can have in, His plan. 

Time and chance happen to them all ... But God's got you through it all, if you'll but trust and follow Him.

Choose Your Hard

You guys. 

Surgeons work terrible hours. They do really hard things. They have to be on call to literally go in at any moment. Sometimes, their patients die. Oh sure, they get paid a lot of money. But I couldnt do it. 

Then, think of all the nurses and even hospital staff who don't get paid that much. But they still do hard things. They clean up messes I can't fathom. Their personal schedules have to revolve around their on call hours and their other, scheduled, crazy hours. 

My trash is picked up at 4 AM ish. That means someone goes to work before 4 AM to literally haul trash. Last winter, the garbage truck wrecked on an icy day. Those poor people. 

The mail people deliver my mail (and yours), rain or shine or sleet or snow. They get in and out of those cars who even knows how any times a day. They cover alllll the miles. They carry heavy packages. They drive down long driveways they aren't sure they'll be able to back down. They put up with grumpy, disgruntled people who wanted their packages earlier.

The IT guy works llloonnggg hours. He's expected to respond quickly and fix problems promptly. He's expected to always have the answer or the fix immediately. He's expected to know the technology and accurately guess at any possible human error. He must remain patient and kind with people who are doing silly things, people who need lots of repeated help, and people who are pretty sure all if this is somehow the IT guys fault. 

The business man is tired of sitting at his desk. His back hurts, and he's made more decisions than he can count. He has employees that are counting on him. Customers he needs to keep happy. Stocks he must watch. Emails coming in constantly. And a family waiting at home. 

And don't even get me started on the soldier, the farmer, the preacher, the stay at home mom.

Jobs are just hard. 

They come with decisions. Big ones, small ones, 80 million ones. They come with bosses who may or may not be great and some sort of clientele that probably isn't always pleasent. They come with hours that aren't always favorable and situations that are hard to walk away from. They all require balance that is often hard to achieve. 

Oh yes, jobs are hard. The good news is, you get to pick your hard ... And you also get to pick your passion. 

Because jobs also have good parts. They do have paychecks. They have rewards. They have perks. They have times you feel good - maybe it's a bonus or a time off award - maybe it's just an "atta boy". Maybe it's a saved life or knowing you made someone's day. Maybe it's knowing you made a difference. 

And I will tell you, as much as anyone, that teaching is hard. Because it is HARD. The pay isn't fantastic. The hours look nice on paper and are harsh in reality. The clientele is often ungrateful and sometimes downright mean. Decisions are handed down that you disagree with and don't understand. The workload follows you as much as you'll let it and the decision making and mental/emotional strain are *real*. 

But I chose that hard. I chose it over construction worker hard and delivery man hard and dentist hard and surgeon hard and even stay at home mom hard. I chose my hard because I also chose my passion. 

I will also tell you, more than anyone, that teaching has good parts. There are children whom you know you've impacted. There are lightbulb "ah-ha" moments and relieved and greatful parents. There are days of fun and joy no other profession gets to have with kids. And oh my goodness there is a whole entire world of people who are the people they are partly because of you. 

I've read a lot of things about how hard teaching is. And I don't disagree with them ... but sometimes I grow weary of them. 

Oh, I'm glad when teaching is recognized as being hard. I'm thankful when it's acknowledged that we are a real profession full of real professionals who deserve to be seen and treated as such. 

Yet I think we could fall easily into seeing teachers as victims. And guys, teachers aren't victims. Warriors maybe. Champions on our best days. Fighters for sure. But please don't let us be victims. 

Because our job isn't the only hard one. It's just the hard that comes with the passion we chose. 

So, see the hard. But focus on the passion. Lean into it. Fight to change the things that are hard. Speak up for your kids, your beliefs, your knowledge of what's best. Take on roles that allow you to encourage and affect change. Don't sit idly by and be discouraged that it's hard. Help figure out ways to make it ... Well, slightly less hard. 

If we lean into the hard, the only thing we get  to see is more ways that our job is hard. But if we'll just lean into the passion ... Maybe we'll remeber how it can carry us through the hard.

Oh, we all have days we wobble, but teachers across the country are falling. So, r emember:

Positive Self Talk

As the girls did tricks on the swing set I was serving as self proclaimed "spotter" and overheard a sweet 4 year old saying quietly to herself:

"I am strong. I can do this."

"Take a deep breath." *Blows out breath*

"'Ive got this. Yes!"

..... Oh, sweet girl, may your self talk always be that strong and positive. 

Whether you're climbing swignsets or mountains, running marathons or surviving unpleasant situations, working through hard things or working with hard people ... this world is going to demand that you maintain that tenacity. 

At times you'll be your own biggest cheerleader and your own best motivation. Certainly, your own voice will be the one you hear the most often ... so keep telling yourself all the right things. 

And if your voice ever wavers, please know my voice will be here, ready to remind you of just how strong you are. ❤️

To My Fellow Teacher People

This week I have been lucky enough to have the chance (which is rare these days) to chat with two separate teacher friends. We traded ideas, and we traded woes. We discovered shared troubles and struggles.

It felt good. They are some of my people. Some of the people I can share my "I don't even know......" stories with and be met with grace instead of judgement. Some of the people I can vent a little to and walk away feeling a whole lot lighter. 

In fact, our brief conversations will get me through to Thanksgiving break because they were reminders that I'm not alone in my hardships or my quest for teaching greatness. So, I wouldn't change much about our conversations ... Except, thinking back on them, I would have been a little more intentional with how I let them end. 

See, I'm better with written word than in the moment speech. So here's what I wish I would have added to our goodbyes ... For them to read, and for you, too,  because if you're a teacher, or a person who has anything to do with a child, you likely need to hear this, too: ➡️➡️➡️

You are doing great things. You are affecting great change. Even though right now you may only see the tiny shiftings - with both students and fellow teachers alike - show, those are the building blocks of absolute greatness. Greatness just takes time .....and maybe occasional tears. 

You are a wonderful teacher. You are teaching those kiddos so much more than academics. Let's face it, they can't always "name" their learning - but it's obvious to those who knew them last year and have seen the growth in them this year. True, you can't take full credit for that, but you can, and should, take partial credit. A large serving of credit, even. They are growing in their thought processes and their ability to regulate their emotions and behaviors, as well as in their academics, and so much of that is due to you. 

I see you. I see you all those days you're here early and on those days you feel you're barely making it but show up with a smile anyway. I see you fighting hard for kids when you see a need, and working to figure out how to fight for kids when you know their is a need but you don't have it quite figured out yet. I see you staying late, giving every thing you can to make tomorrow, and next week, as close to perfect as teaching can be - for your own kiddos and your lucky coworkers, too.

Goodness knows we are all extra hard on ourselves, but your small wins? I see them, too. Even when you don't and when you feel like noone else does either. I see (and *feel*) how indispensable you are to the rest of us and those precious kiddos, too. I'm thankful, daily, that you're doing this teaching life with me and that I get to pick your brain, learn from you, vent with you, and see you impact the lives of our kids. 

The kids adore you. I've never met a single one that didn't. Even when they don't act like it. Even on those days when they do wacky things and attempt to test your crazy. You are their safe place, their comfort zone. They know you've got them .... and sometimes that brings the comfort level for all the things - good and bad alike. ......but mostly good. And when there is some "bad", well, that's when you show them how much you really do have their backs with some of that tough love the best teachers can dish out. 

Because, ultimately, you are the best. 

Oh, I know you don't always *feel* like it ... but you never fall short of it. Even on the rough days, you are giving your all and doing wonderful, amazing, world changing things. One kid at a time. One team at a time. One blessed teacher friend at a time. 

So, thanks. Thanks for making my wild days feel more normal and reminding me to come back tomorrow ready to try with renewed gusto. Thanks for encouraging the best in me and the good I have to give. Thanks for showing up and pushing through and being great. 

You rock, and noone says it enough. So....save this so you can read it again later. 😉

Flash Back

Just about a year ago, I started this post: 

"This week our elementary school has been virtual. Me, alone in my classroom teaching students who are at their homes.  It's only 1 week ... But it's taught me so many thinhs about technology and parent contact and it's reminded me of so many things about kids. 

I was reminded the very first moment of my first google meet that I really prefer teaching when kids are in my classroom instead of on my computer screen.

I was reminded the very second moment that the kids actually prefer being in my classroom to seeing me on a computer screen, too. 

By the third moment I started being shown pets and Christmas trees and houses and little brothers and sisters and I was reminded that my kids come from so many different places. We're all here within in this same town ... But there are so many different backgrounds.

As kids turned in work they were doing without any teacher support it became obvious how wide the divide amongst my crew is. How some clearly had plentiful parent support replacing the teacher support ... And how some clearly didn't. How some had a quite work environment, good for completing assignments....and some were attempting to concentrate through noise and diatravtion. LHow some had a priority placed on keeping up with school work, and how some had other things taking priority."

I never finished the post. 

I assume it was because that week was crazy and then in person school resumed and was crazy, and then I forgot about it because life stayed crazy.... 

BUT reading it the other day was an awesome reminder for me of the things that became so obvious last year. The things that are still so obvious this year. 

My kiddos are still coming from all those situations. They don't come from "level playing fields". They don't get the same amount of support and not all their families place the same priority on the same things. They don't all eat that well, or rest that comfortably, or have smooth and easy mornings .... At least not always.  

And then they come to school (thank goodness I don't have to say "and then they log on").... And they all need a million different things

Or maybe they all need the same things: a little grace and patience. A listening ear and an understanding word. To be welcomed and loved. To receive their education with a side of "let's figure this out so you can be the absolute greatest you" instead of a side of "because I said so". 

Because even in the days where it's hard for them to remeber it - let alone show it - they actually do want to be their best self. 

And no matter where they are coming from or what kind of morning they had they ALL are the absolute best thing their parents have to share with me. 

Seriously. There is not a single parent who is keeping their best child hidden and sending me their worst child. Each of my kiddos is their parents greatest thing - the prize possessions of their households.

...and I better be treating them as such. 

That Simple

This world has become a pretty complicated place. It bleeds into our lives in lots and lots of ways. We can't avoid it, it's just the way it is. 

We have complicated kids coming from complicated situations. We have complicated family dynamics and complicated social settings. There are complicated mental health issues and complicated thungs people ask us to figure out.

Our jobs are complicated, and paperwork is complicated, and keeping everyone happy as we fill all our different roles is complicated. 

And we embrace it, and muddle through it, because, well, we have to. 

.....but maybe not everything has to be quite that complicated.

At the end of a Bible study this morning, as we looked at Paul's discussion in Romans where he is aiming to prove that the gospel is for all, Jews and Gentiles alike, Uncle Jamie pointed out that Paul presented chronological evidence as if to say "it really is that simple". 

See, the Jews were complicating things, and the Gentiles were complicating things, and Paul seemed to be trying to get them to see that the debate was *actually* already settled because of the way God set things up. It really was just that simple.

That statement got me thinking about a lot of other things we discuss and dwell on. I will be the first to tell you we cannot ignore the complicated.l when we look at our world. We cannot pretend everything is simply black and white .... Butt we can choose to see the simple and some of the moments and decisions that we face. 

For one thing, am I doing with the Bible says, or am I not? In a lot of instances, it really is that simple ... Or at least it should be.

Am I worshiping the way God laid out worship? Or am I adding in men's traditions and treating them as doctrine?

Am I loving my brother and in the way got intended for me to do? Or am I allowing myself to be blind to my brother and sins in an attempt to "not offend"?

In my upholding the standards of modesty, the standard of life, that God asked his followers to have? Or, is the influence of the world around me dragging me down?

Am I about the work of my Heavenly Father? Or have I let this world, and it's temptations and concerns, distract me?

Maybe, just maybe, amidst all the complicated .... I need to strive to get back to the simplistic nature presented in the Bible. 

Follow God. Keep His commandments (all of them). Do His will. Strive to be more like Christ. 

It really is that simple. 

Partners

Sometimes he folds the towels "wrong" and claims not to know where the girls clothes go and sometimes I drive him crazy by stuffing the trash can too full instead of just emptying it and ordering too many packages from Amazon.

But sometimes?

Sometimes he cuts wood with the help of one kiddo, and I put my grades in while the other kiddo reads to me. 

Sometimes he washes the dishes while I drop off kids at daycare. 

Sometimes he starts kid bath time while I pick up the living room. 

Sometimes he orders a pizza while I finish a project ... and kid bedtime sure is easier when we tag team. 

One Wednesday I wasn't feeling well and he took the girls to church. One Wednesday he worked late and the girls and I headed out without him.

Some days - and weeks - he carries the weight because I'm stressed or sick or tired. Other times I carry the load because work and commitments keep him busy. 

Sometimes we have misunderstandings and argue. Sometimes we read each others mind without a word. 

We are never fully perfect. But we are always full partners ... And I am SO thankful for that.