happy tears

Joy.  You can hear it in children's laughter.  You can see it in their eyes.  You can feel it when they surprise you with what they are capable of.  This is one of the blessings being a teacher has.  It wasn't until I caught a glimpse of this joy today that I realized how encouraging my faith is.  

You see, I was in a bit of a rut.  I felt as though I was at odds with what God was putting in my life.  I didn't like certain situations and continued to think, "If only...".  I finally had the moment of truth where I realized that I obviously can't change my situations.  Instead of asking God "HOW am I going to get through this? or WHEN will this situation end" I began asking God "WHERE do you want to use me?"  God always has a plan and a purpose, so instead of running from it why not have faith that God will see me through and show me how to serve him in the meantime.  

Today I reaped the rewards of what God was trying to teach my all along.  I have a student in my class that speaks very little English and has definitely challenged me as a teacher to understand how to best meet her needs so that she can learn.  Instead of complaining about how difficult this was I began praying that God would show me how to teach this student of mine, love this student of mine, and know that children are God's greatest blessings.  

One thing I like to do with this student is ask them to show me a given emotion, which builds their vocabulary and helps with connecting an emotion to an English word.  I will say, "Show me happy...Show me sad...Show me surprised...Show me angry..."

Today as we were walking to recess, this dear student of mine turned to me and said "Show me happy...Show me sad...Show me surprised...Show me angry..."  Throughout the day this student opened my eyes to see what I had taught her.  Not only was this student playing along with me and making this game their own, they were also showing me what they had retained.  I brought over a book to read with them while doing an activity, and this student read it to me!  I mean, all of the hard work and repetition to teach this student words like "see", "and", "the", etc. had paid off as I heard their sweet voice say "I like to see the queen."  

I know it takes a teacher to really appreciate these little moments, but it made me want to cry happy tears.  

A verse that I have continued to read over and over again is this:

"But you need to stick it out, staying with God's plan so you'll be there for the promised completion."  

Hebrews 10:36 MSG

I hope that whatever seems too hard for you, has you challenged, or makes you want to cry will be encouraged by this verse and knowing God always has a plan-but we must do His will in this plan.