Happy Friday!! I have the most wonderful news and so worthy of the praise of our most holy and loving God. Carme’s lymph node results came back…NEGATIVE!!!!! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Amen and Amen!! That means no chemotherapy and no radiation. Her cancer mass was hormone fed. So she will go on a hormone treatment for about five years (hormones that were not already in her system) and then a new hormone will be administered. We give continuous thanks to God for His gifts of grace, love, life and healing.

Psalm 118:14 says, “The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation.”

I have been teaching for a very long time. I often say that “I have been teaching since God was a boy.” After that many years and all mostly in the first grade, I can usually get my class into shape within a week or two of the first day of school. The children I have been given this year are not following the previous years’ pattern. We are on day 97 of school and they are still not behaving and operating in class as I am requesting. The primary issue is not a matter of brain power. They are plenty smart but they do not listen because they talk so very much. Consequently far too much of my teaching time is spent in quieting the classroom before I can teach them the lesson I have prepared. One of my teaching mantras has always been “I cannot teach you until I have your attention.” Because of this issue of talking vs. listening, I do not feel the children are where they need to be in terms of their progress by the 97th day of school. The school year is rapidly approaching the end of the term.

In light of the information I have just shared with you I would like to bring up two points. First, how much are we like this group of first graders? Are we so busy talking about everything except that on which we should be focused and not listening to the lessons God has prepared for us? And are we progressing through this spiritual journey at the pace in which God has set out or must we always be taught again the same lessons because we didn’t listen and apply the first or hundredth time God has presented us with new learning?

Next, by the end of the day I am tired, frustrated and just want to close my door, grab my keys and go home. By the next day I have regrouped and hopefully come up with new strategies for instruction and classroom management that will help this problem along. I do not feel I have been successful as yet, but I am going to continue to try.

Do you suppose God gets tired of presenting us with lessons and new learning and we still don’t get it? What does He do to get our attention? Do we talk too much and not listen enough? (please!) Do we believe our own agenda supersedes that which God has in store for us? Okay, I am pretty sure the answers to these questions are a resounding “YES! Praise God that He does not get His keys and just goes home. His love for us is so amazing that He never gives up on us and is relentless in His pursuit of teaching us how to live a godly life of love, grace and compassion. He never gets tired. Just like the beautiful Psalm says, “He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps.”

So, as for me, when the end of the day comes and I am not as patient and kind with the children in my classroom as I need to be and I am tired of feeling that I am battling instead of teaching, I am going to pray, but I am changing the way I pray. I am not going to pray for the children to change, but for me to change. When I am tired I am going to pray for God’s strength to renew me and allow me to continue to give 100% to the children in my charge. The Psalms make so many references to God being our strength, our rock, our salvation and our joy. It is time for me to claim the scriptures in the workplace and ask God to strengthen me and help me to listen for His council. You can be in prayer for me as I pray for change in me.

Thank you, dear friends, for all of your prayers for our family and for our friends Carme and Dave. We love you all.

Take joy in the journey. Love you, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.