Short and...honest!

I must be honest! I spent most of my last day of summer break cleaning. Okay! Okay! I spent most of my last day of summer break throwing myself a pity party. For whatever reason, I was not looking forward to summer being over. So much so that I called on one of my prayer warriors to shoot a few up on my behalf because let's face it, summer is over for teachers, and there's no turning back. Yesterday was better, but I was still dwelling on the fact that my summer is GONE! Did I do all I wanted to do with my girls? Did I make sure they had a fabulous and relaxing summer? Did I relax enough? Did I spend enough time with my family? My husband? Did we enjoy enough date nights? What is enough? Oh my!!!
It wasn't until this morning in church that it hit me! "Nothing compares to the promise I have in You..." These lyrics to "Shout to The Lord" don't have much to do with why I feel excited about the new school year now other than taking me back to the days when I first knew I'd be involved with teaching and education for a very long time- the days when we sang this song more than we do now and the days when all I wanted to do was share the word or teach a child about Jesus through my actions. As we sang, I could hear my Granny Pettey saying "Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere." Then the guest pastor began his sermon this morning with a few short stories and then, "Why worry when I can pray?"
Yep! Why am I worrying if I spent enough quality time with everyone when all I need to be doing is praying? Good gracious?!!!!! It's that simple. So, that's what I did!
We had sort of a busy early afternoon showing our house that's for sale (yep, that's a plug) and getting some stuff ready in my classroom but were home for a good portion of the rest of the day. The girls were playing inside while Daniel did a little bit of what I like to call "lawya clean up" work. I told him I was going outside to spray the weeds in our flower beds, but what I really intended to do while killing weeds was pray. I prayed for my attitude to be what it needs to be everyday for my students and their parents as well as for my co-workers. I prayed for my leadership. That's a hard job she does, and I'm thankful she does it. I prayed for my co-workers who are more like friends that their attitudes will be what they need to be. I prayed for my students to give their all and then I prayed for their parents to always keep in the back of their minds that I try my best to see their children as my children, their babies as my babies-like little Addisons and little Haydens. I'll love them and care for them, not the same way you do, but just as much as you do. I'll teach them everything I can, and I promise to give your babies my all!
 I prayed because that's what I'd asked someone to do for me, but hadn't actually stopped to do it  myself.

With all of this being said, bring on the new school year! I'm ready and prayed up!