... of a really sweet time in my life.
I normally lay out my work clothes the night before, since I don't do my best thinking at 6 a.m. One evening, I opened my closet to get things ready for the next day. The forecast was for cooler weather, which meant I was heading to the back of the closet for the fall season section. I started pulling out wool skirts, long sleeve dresses and black jumpers, the wardrobe of a seminary teacher, well, a sister seminary teacher anyway.
Clothes that I had packed away at the end of the first year teaching seminary thinking I wouldn't be going back, but then I did.
Remember...?
It's kind of funny how life is just moving along to a certain rhythm and then a little drop of memory will seep in to the here-and-now and suddenly I am homesick for a time past that, when it was the present, may not have been as easy as my memory may recall.
...and then the same old worry starts, "did I do a good job", "did I make a difference", "did I please the Lord", and of course "I should have done more". The same thoughts parents have themselves hundreds of times while raising and even decades after raising their children.
It wasn't easy teaching seminary....
My kind and patient children and my kind and enduring husband will look at this picture and remember the rules:
1. NO PHONE CALLS ON THE HOUSE PHONE AFTER 9 PM
2. WHEN MOM PICKS UP HER SCRIPTURES, GOES TO HER ROOM, AND SHUTS THE DOOR BEHIND HER, THE PARTY IS OVER (EVEN THOUGH IT IS ONLY 6 PM)
...but they will never complain, because there is one more rule...
3. "...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (and we will do it with a smile on our face)
...no, not always easy, but so worth it.
...now back to the original thought (remember I can't tell a story without jumping around a little)
...and then I got up the next morning, put on the preselected clothes and headed off to work. Just a normal day, right? Except on this particular day I had a special visitor, an old friend, a joy in my life, Jill...
...I was busy, answering the phone, checking patients in, checking patients out, pulling charts, filing insurance claims and on, and on...
...and in walks sunshine, "Awesome" sunshine...smiling, searching for me, seeing me, and me seeing her and my heart flipped.
...I'm sure I won't be the best seminary teacher that Jill will ever have, but I will always be the most grateful for having Jill in my seminary class. I'm grateful for her smile at 6 a.m. grateful for her encouraging eyes at 6 a.m., grateful for the confidence she gave me...grateful for her friendship and love...even at 6 a.m.
...I had a lot of awesome seminary students, but there will always be something special about the "Awesome" Jill.
2 comments:
I love that picture of you! You worked so hard this last year and we all know that you have made a difference. Thank-you for your example.
You were the best seminary teacher! You were so dedicated.. You have touched those kids lives in ways you may never know!
Post a Comment