Lots to Learn

I suppose anyone who works directly with other people on a daily basis will have things to look back on and wish they had done differently. I suppose that is natural. As a teacher looking back is necessary to some extent because in looking back it is possible to see with greater clarity areas that may need some modification for the future. Assessing performance is good and necessary.

But in looking at the past there is also the pitfall of getting stuck in the failures I see there. Of becoming mired down by the things I wish I could do differently, the people I wish I could have the chance to influence differently. The tendency to see in my mind the faces of children who have been in my care and focus only on the ways in which I failed them.

Forgetting the things that are in the past and looking forward to the things that are in God's plan for my future has never before meant quite what it has the past week and a half. The past summer in some ways but especially since coming back.

There is lots of talk at the beginning of a new school year about giving the kids a blank slate. Yes, even the kids that may have not had the best year previously. I am grateful the Lord grants us the same amazing privilege and gives me His strength for each day. Strength to look back and learn, strength to look ahead and press on. 

I have lots to learn, a long way to go. Sometimes I feel helpless to be what each student really needs. But the Lord must place them in my class for a reason. Perhaps it is something they need to learn from me. Perhaps it is something that I need to learn from them. With the Lord's strength and love and, well, everything else we each approach every single day learning from our glances at the past but keeping our eyes fixed on the day ahead and what His plan for the future is. Knowing that He requires our best but understands we are frail and prone to weakness. Confident that all we need will be provided. Rejoicing in the day the Lord has mapped out for us from before the dawn of time.