05/13/13

It is the end of the year at school.

May is always a tough month.... so much going on and so little energy left.  (At least for the teachers...)

By this time of year, usually I have taught all of the new things that I am to teach for the year.  I am doing a lot of reinforcing and reviewing to make sure all that has been taught is really known.

There are days at this time of the year when it is hard to get going in the morning.

It is hard to think straight because I am trying to do a million things at once.

Some days I feel as if my "bag of tricks" to help the kids learn has been drained.

I must admit.... I, myself, feel pretty depleted.

That is the state I was in when I got up to get going to school this morning.

Except, the Lord had different plans for me to stop looking at myself and how "drained" I feel, and continue to be used by HIM.

There are a few girls who have been having some difficulty getting along in my class.  It is nothing abnormal... we deal with this all of the time as teachers.  Instead of "band-aiding" the behavior of unkindness, we all try to counsel the children to help them understand what God's Word says about their problems between each other.  Teaching school is a lot more than "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic!"

One of the precious ones I was talking with today began to share with me in the middle of our discussion how she asks Jesus in her heart every day, lots of times a day, but she never feels any different.  It was interesting to hear her say it.... and her sweet, animated face showed it as well.  I asked her if she would like for me to talk with her alone about that once we were done with all of us together and she said she would.

A few minutes later, with my Bible continuing to be in front of me, I began to share with her how she can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is her Savior and never need to ask Him to come into her heart again.

The Lord gave me verses from our Sunday School lesson yesterday, as well as others that fit what she needed at the time.

It was all from the Lord... truly.

I think she was having a hard time understanding that the accepting of Jesus Christ into ones heart is just like accepting a gift, and not something you have to do repeatedly once it is done with true belief.  I began to show her Romans 6:23 -

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  

I then looked down at my wrist and saw a gift she had given me.  I touched my hand to my neck area and felt another gift this precious one had just given me last week.  These gifts were ones that the Lord pricked my heart to wear today.... one of which I don't normally wear a lot to school because it is a bracelet and bracelets get in my way when I am grading papers.  I still remember a still, small voice telling me this morning to wear the necklace AND the bracelet....

It was then that the Lord gave me another word picture for her.

I shared with her that when she gave me those two gifts, I accepted them.  I didn't keep handing them back to her and asking her for them again, but I believed in her love for me and gratefully accepted the gifts.  I shared that they were now near and dear to my heart and very precious to me.  Once I accepted them, they were mine to keep.

This is what Christ did on the cross... He made a way for us to have the gift of salvation.  All we have to do is accept what He did and confess that He is Lord and believe in our hearts that He has taken away our sin, and nothing can take Him away from us.

Through the words that the Lord gave me, this precious one accepted Christ as her Savior as I held her hands.

She shared with me on our way to lunch that she was so happy she couldn't stand it!  She beamed!  She KNEW now that Jesus was her Savior and she never had to worry about that decision again.

What a joy to my heart!

What a reminder from the Lord to me that "[His] grace is sufficient for me; for [His] strength is made perfect in [my] weakness. (II Corinthians 12:9)

It wasn't about me.  It never is.

It was about being used by God even when I felt my well was dry. 

Because of this, there were showers of blessing in my heart.