Fresh Start

After a two week break, today was the first day back to school. I love the first day of school and the first day after a break because the kids are subdued and extremely quiet. However, after a couple of days they get back into the routine and they return to their "normal" behavior. But I must admit that the students experience some type of metamorphosis at midterm. I don't know what it is about the middle of the year, but the kids seem brighter, more mature, more responsible, more confident, and relaxed. Every year it is the same, I watch my students who seem so needy and unsure of themselves morph into self-reliant, self-confident co-teachers. They come to a realization that they can do what is required of them, and they understand that if they "don't get it" at first then they can start over or come to me for help. They are not afraid to keep trying, and they enjoy helping each other when they encounter obstacles. It is amazing to see one child leave his seat without being asked to assist another child with a reading passage or a computation problem. It is then that I feel that I have succeeded as a teacher. It is at that moment that I am most proud that they are a replica of their teacher.

Similarly, after we have spent some time in God's presence we become new creatures. The result of living and learning His word yields a child who can now reflect the teacher. When we first come to the knowledge of Jesus, we are sometimes unsure of how He fulfills His word. We worry and we give up too easily. But when we learn to trust God and praise Him in spite of what we think or see, then we are able to get out of our circumstances to help others who only see the obstacle in front of them. We don't throw a pity party, we don't wait for God to give us a sign of His faithfulness, but we stand on our faith and God's word that we can do what is required of us, and if we fall short we know that we can go back to where our faith waned and get in God's presence to go forward. God is the Master Teacher who watches His children morph into God-reliant, faith filled co-laborers with Jesus. According to Romans 12:2, we are told to be transformed by renewing our minds. So, tomorrow, start fresh. Shake off the worries, the trials, the temptations, the fear, and worship anyway; praise anyway; pray anyway; witness to someone hurting anyway; live radically obedient!
You are a new creature, tomorrow is your fresh start!