Happy Thursday! Tonight we attended the Senior Awards Assembly at Lamar High School. Travis received a choir award and the first recipient of the Casey Chrystie Memorial Scholarship was announced. The young man who received the scholarship has been a friend of Travis’ since Junior High. We were so proud of this very special young man.

During my planning time this morning Mr. Koppes (my vice-principal) and the chair person of the yearbook committee came to my classroom and presented me with a copy of this year’ s Burton Hill Yearbook. She opened up the yearbook and told me they had dedicated this years’ publication to Casey. I felt so honored and so very proud. I shed quite a few tears as I remembered how much Casey loved to come to school with me and work in my room.

Tomorrow is the 7th Annual First Grade Family Picnic. It is one of my most favorite days of the school year. Families of our first graders gather with their blankets and lawn chairs send their hot dogs and buns and have a two hour lunch and play time. I am the grill master and grill about a million hot dogs. It is such a fun day. Up until last year Casey had come to school and grilled the hot dogs for the kids. I will miss him a lot tomorrow. Geni and Travis will be helping me tomorrow.

Hebrews 13:5 “And be content with such things as ye have for He hath said, I will never leave thee, not forsake thee.”

My stress level at this moment is pretty high. I did no sleep very well last night. The end of the school year is always a time of stress with deadlines occurring seemingly every few minutes, grades to post, awards to figure out, a room that has to be completely packed away, students that have already shut down and we still have a week to go, this year with Travis graduation and a party to follow. And all of this has to be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. And then I read this scripture. “And be content…” Right now I am anything but content. I am frustrated and my heart today has been torn into pieces once again because of the yearbook and the scholarship. Have you ever been so frustrated or stressed that you were finding it hard to breathe or even make a complete sentence? That was me today.

Instead of stopping to breathe and ask God to bring about peace and calmness, I sputtered at Bruce trying to tell him how I was feeling and made no sense what so ever. So I quit talking for fear that I would say something I would have really regretted. And God has the nerve to say, “Be ye content with such things…for I will never leave thee or forsake thee.” God is asking me let go of these stressful feelings and allow Him to love me. I know in the grand scheme of things all of the aforementioned activities are just “stuff,” and I have been through far worse things than a few deadlines and floors that need to be laid by next Sunday morning. God’s gentle reminder in this short passage of scripture is God’s way of telling me, Gaylene, you have trusted me with things far more difficult than this and I can take care of these things too. Calm down and listen to Me. I did not leave you when you were going through the most difficult time in your life and I will not leave you now.”

Tonight’s prayer simply says, “Lord forgive me for reacting to the stresses in my life. I give you Lordship over each one of these events and trust that all will be accomplished.” In this passage God is telling me,” Rely on My love and if you feel yourself beginning to crater, pray for more love from Me and remember I Am here and I will never leave you for forsake you.”

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

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

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