This week was full, but in the fullness there were some beautiful moments in class and out of it. I had so many students offer kind words to me knowing I was adding extra teaching to my schedule, and I even had one bring me flowers as a thank you for writing a college recommendation letter last week. I have a stack of notes from students that I keep by my bed and read sometimes when I'm feeling low. It's a nice reminder that I'm doing what God has prepared me for and called me to. Sometimes the enemy tries to knock me off balance and cause me to doubt, but I'm incredibly grateful for the evidence in my life that shows I'm doing what's right.
I had a call with this incredible Jesus loving human last week that reminded me of just that. Even though Zaneta and I were both super busy, we squeezed in this chat and shared how something had been thrown in our path this week and each of us needed to keep doing what God has called us to. It was such an uplifting conversation when I was feeling fatigued, and it was the perfect "Holy Spirit pep-talk" to rally my energy to make it through the next few days. Since I had spent more time on lesson plans and teaching more hours, I had less time to work on my doctoral program. The school I'm in has optional lessons that come as email prompts that allow you to submit something and stay current when you don't have time to finish a full course. Nothing of interest had come in the last week, so I was planning to smash out a 20 page paper on a course during the weekend. I did all the course work Friday night, but then when I checked my email Saturday morning before starting the paper, there was an optional course to write about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Well, that got me jazzed, and I researched and whipped out a six page paper on the value of implementing the fruit of the Spirit in a classroom in order to remove barriers to learning for traumatised students. Now I'm going to start a conversation with my advisor about outlining my entire thesis on that.
There were moments in the past few weeks that threatened to derail me, but fortunately I properly identified the enemy trying to attack me. This past week has had key moments that were a boost to my energy and will keep me going through this next week.