One of my kids pulls up her distance learning plan and immediately starts to cry. She misses her friends. She misses her teacher! She’s a little unsure how to start her work. As I gently explain she has a week to work on her plan, and she can break it down each day, she listens doubtfully. Then, a glimmer of hope. She spots my teacher planner with blank pages and subjects broken down. She grabs a blank piece of paper and starts replicating the format. Purpose and encouragement are building as she plots each one of her assignments, carefully planning them out through the week and coloring coding them appropriately. I offer to buy her a near identical planner for her own use. She picks one out on Amazon. Click. It’s arriving Tuesday. One small battle is won.
Now my other child sends my scheduled/organized self into a near tizzy. I want all of my ducks in a row. He wants to shoot the ducks. Literally. He casually clicks through his own learning plan and then declares with a laugh, “My goal is to put off school until 9 p.m. each night.” Oh, brother. This is where the panic in my brain wants to sink its teeth in deep. This is the place where I will fret.
But then while perusing my Bible today, I flip to a well-worn, annotated section of Lamentations and I’m reminded of a promise that holds very dear to this mama-teacher’s weary soul: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness,” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Repeat that to yourselves, anxious parents. He will dole out faithfully just what you need.
They are new every morning.
When we are at our wits ends with disorganized kids, with clearly crafted schedules that tank in the first hour, with screaming toddlers during video meetings, with Internet that lags behind, with the loss of income, the endless threat of toilet paper running out…I know He will show us glimmers of hope. Right when we need it.
Don’t feel like you have to be strong and hold it all together. There will probably be a lot of tears this week. And not just from the kids.
We are all in this together. Even better, God’s still got this one.
For further encouragement that cross references Lamentations 3:22-3, please check out: Psalm 30:5; Psalm 36:5; Psalm 73:26; Psalm 89:33; Lamentations 3:55; and Hebrews 10:23.
By Sally Loisel, CCS 6th grade teacher
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