Sharing my Story Day 15: Work in Progress

There are many times in our life that we tend to question why we must go through things. Sometimes we may think and question at the time and other times we may be reflecting on life and wonder why. At the moment we may not understand and to be honest we may never understand, but sometimes if we take the time to quietly reflect, we can see how certain events that seemed isolated at the time actually add up to something bigger. Sometimes as we reflect we may think, "oh that part of my story wasn't important, I don't even see how it relates to God or even what God had to do with that event." But that is when we focus on just the isolated events. Sometimes, if we just open up our hearts and minds we and allow the bigger picture to come into focus we can see how all those seemingly insignificant events add up to reveal God's work within our lives. 

Today I am a teacher and for some reason I often get placed in leadership roles. As a teacher, even early in my career, I learned that I am cut from a different bolt of cloth. Granted there are others like me, but for the most part, many of the teachers I work with grew up quite differently. I firmly believe that some of the things we go through in life are preparing us for other things. 

In schools I often see signs that say things like "Every time your child changes schools, they lose ___ years of learning" or something like that. I also get to hear teacher frustrations that I believe come from a lack of understanding because they didn't live a life like the ones their students live. Statements such as "children should never feel the financial pressures of the family" or "students should be exposed to _______ at home" or "why can't we get more parents to show up for ________" or "if only kids would show up with all the supplies on the school supply list" or "if only parents knew what moving around did to kids". And let's not forget the one about kids going home and being home alone until parents get off work. The list could go on and on. 

While my teachers may not have had the same conversations about me, I can definitely imagine how I fit easily into them. You see by the time I finished 5th grade, I had already been to 6 different schools (3 in third grade alone). By the time I finished high school that number increased to 10. So think about it 13 total years in school and throughout that time I attended 10 different schools. I attended schools in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. 

To add to that most of the time both my parents not only worked, but they had to work if we wanted a roof over our head and food on the table. Working meant that there were often times I was that latchkey child. This work also meant that we were usually the family that didn't show up for extra stuff and getting time off for a parent teacher conference to be held in the middle of the day with only a few days notice was rough if it could be arranged at all. I was also one very perceptive of the family's financial situation. I knew that there were many times in our life growing up that money was tight. Sure there were some times when there was a little extra to spend, but pennies were watched a lot. 

While I am not going into great detail, just giving snippets of my life, I hope you get a small picture of where I am going. You see, as I think, as I have many times over my career, about my life, I do believe that God has a plan for me all along. You see the schools I prefer are Title 1 schools. To be Title 1 the school has to have a certain percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch. For me, the higher the poverty level, the better. You see, I can relate to these children and while I can't always relate 100% to what they go through, there are many experiences I get because I lived through them myself or can easily imagine what they would be like.

I think I am also there to be an extra voice for these children and their parents. When there are complaints that parents don't show up, I am their voice to ask "How much notice did you give? Oh, you just sent it home 3 days ago. Well, that's why the parents couldn't show up. They need to be able to give notice for time off."  or "I don't understand why ________ didn't pay for their field trip." Well, again when did you send home information. Ten dollars or even five dollars may not seem like a lot to you, but for families with tight budgets, even an extra $5 has to be budgeted for in advance. 

And then there is my all time favorite, "I just got a new student. He has been in 4 different schools already and he's just in ____ grade." or "She changed schools twice last year." I am very well aware that apparently I have beat the typical odds, but we can't make assumptions about students. I've actually had to play this card often. Now sadly it is usually true that many of our struggling students move around a lot, but we can't just make assumptions. I had plenty of teachers who would place me in the lowest groups to start with only to have to move me up to the highest group. But you know what as the child I couldn't help the fact that we had to move; and due to circumstances, my parents couldn't control the fact that we would have to move either. 

As I think on all these issues discussed in education, I realize that God provided me with the experiences growing up that I would need to be able to stand up for children in similar circumstances. It also helps me to relate much better with these students.

So while this part of my story isn't about times when I saw God in my life, it is one to plant the idea that maybe, just maybe we go through experiences because God will need us to use them later in life to do his work or to see how his work is playing out in our life. 

Let us pray, 

God, thank you for my experiences. You know my whole story and you've always been there whether I realized it or not. God I ask for your help in finding my voice in telling more of my story over the next 15 days as we have made it to the half way mark. I feel like I have already grown closer to you and I can't wait to continue this journey. Amen.