the blessings of today

as i walked down the hall this morning at 7:30am greeting beautiful 7th graders 
i thought about how tired i was and that it was only thursday
a student greeted me and handed me a gorgeous handmade coffee mug cozy from his mom 
and i oooh and ahh cause ya'll its really awesome and immediately placed it on the giant coffee cup i carry every morning and said THANK YOU
i walked away and said thank you Lord for the reminder

i walked out of my back to back language arts and math class at 10:19 
after teaching additive inverse and integers and notice and note and conflict and theme
i told my students to have a great day 
and there stood a young lady who sweetly smiled and handed me a ziploc bag with a blueberry muffin and she whispered mom sent you that
i smiled and whispered thank you
i walked away and said thank you Lord for the reminder

it's the second week of school and my baby kindergarten girl has strep throat
the mornings are early and the days are late
and the routine and schedule is wearying me down
the programs and planning and getting to know your students is draining 
but i love it
and the Lord continued to send these reminders all down

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

conversations with colleagues of encouragement
emails of kind words and assistance
laughing 12 year olds
aha moments in math
a smiling little girl ready to pick sunflowers and go back to school

mom cooking supper
friends who text you wanna walk tonight at football practice

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up 1 Thessalonians 5:7

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. Romans 14:7

Thank you, Lord, for sending encouragers my way today.  I'm tired and worn, you know it.  Help me be an encourager to others whether in action or words or in any way I can.  

Amen