Sometimes, I don't remember to pray for things until I'm knee deep in it. This year, however, I started praying for the kids teachers about a month before school started. It was kind of hard to know what to pray for, but God began showing me things in my kids that helped direct my prayers. For example, Katie is very organized (see below) and loves to read. She loves to learn, she doesn't just do her homework to get it done, she wants to understand it and get it right because she understands it. She also wants to be treated like an adult, she wants respect and responsibility and will work to obtain both. She can be quite impatient, intolerant of drama (except her own- which actually is very little) and believes that if you say you are going to do something you should do it and do it in a timely manner and if you don't, she has difficulty seeing the circumstances that prevented you from doing it that way. She often sees things in black and white, fact or fiction - she doesn't like gray areas. She believes that if someone tells you something in confidence it should stay that way. She does not like to be first, or last, or worst of all, LATE. Of course, I knew these things about her already, but God seemed to highlight them for me this summer. That helped me pray for teachers that would help her grow in her areas of weakness and also use her strengths in a positive way. And because I know so many teachers personally, I always prayed for their life outside the school too. We all know that our personal life affects the job we do, no matter what job it is.
Katie had a great first day of junior high (8th grade). According to her, it was an "amazingly wonderful amazing" first day. She likes all of her teachers so far. There was only one she was unsure of before the school year started. She had heard some scary things about her. But Katie said she is very happy with her and the way she organizes her class and the work they have to do. And if you really know Katie, you can win her over with superior organizational tactics.
Every year since 4th grade, we hear some scary things about one of the teachers that she gets. But they have ALWAYS turned out to be her favorite teachers overall. I've never told her what people say about those teachers. I don't want her opinion of them to be influenced by others and their experiences. That's not fair to her or the teacher. But she's growing up now (sniffle sniffle) and she has her own social circles and I can't always filter the details she gets. So this year she heard with her own ears (or her own eyes, cause I'm sure the conversation was via text) about a few other people's issues and their opinions regarding this teacher. It made her pretty anxious about it. But God is good and He turned that into a teachable moment. We talked about peer pressure and how letting her friend's opinions influence the way she thought about a person was peer pressure too. And I told her about all the teacher's she has had that were "horrible" according to someone else, but they were her favorites. I think that really helped her get it.
I had a truck full of girls last night cause I was driving the youth from the wood to the fort (hee hee that's funny). I got to listen to them all talk about their day and the things they liked or didn't. And this is what they said was the best thing about junior high "You get to sit wherever you want at lunch and when you are done you get to get up and go outside" (that was said in a voice filled with amazement). They all talked about how they had so much more freedom now (apart from the lunchroom they couldn't give me any examples, it was just a "feeling" they said). We have talked about now, that when you are given more freedom, along with that comes more responsibility. They may not realize what that means yet, but the seed has been planted.
Thank you God for a beautiful start to the junior high experience, for me and Katie!
