When I decided I wanted to be a teacher, I had grandiose thoughts of inspiring the next generation to thrive in their learning! I expected classrooms full of shining faces anxious to hear all I had to share with them. I just knew that I could help them love reading, embrace math, and become flourishing writers! Years later, I must confess that those dreams are quite tarnished and reality has firmly ground out the spark of this naïve educator’s lofty goals.
Please don’t judge me harshly. I’m sure there are some who’ve had much better experiences than myself. But the reality is that today’s public schools are filled with students who accurately reflect the failing family structures in our communities. As the family units continue to disintegrate, the impact on the school system as a whole and the educators who daily pour into those students is intense. Most teachers I know are exhausted, frustrated, and downright discouraged. Yet, we come back each morning with a renewed hope that today will be a better day! In all honesty, it’s hard to keep that upbeat attitude in the midst of it all. Yes, the struggle is very real!
This week, my near-breaking point arrived as I was looking over a stack of essays. I’d spent a significant amount of time meeting one-on-one with nearly 50 students to discuss areas of success and growth potential prior to this new writing. As I skimmed through the stack, the lack of progress and even regression was utterly disheartening! I felt the dark stain of hopelessness oozing over my heart. “Why bother? I’m not making a difference! The need is so great, I don’t know where to even begin!”
If you know me, you know that this attitude is generally unlike me. I’d like to say that I’m able to always rise above it all, but that’d be less than honest. Those who walk in shoes like mine well know the feelings I was experiencing!
Such hopelessness is compounded by the sense of fighting a battle alone. This is why we need each other!1
We need to have others in our life that are there to prop us up when we are ready to tumble! And we need to be there for others who find themselves slipping down the slope of discouragement.2 For me, it was one of my co-workers who is well aware of all we face. She listened to me lament and then encouraged me to stop looking at the vast needs and focus instead on the points of success. She reminded me to be willing to accept and encourage the steps forward instead of demanding the leaps… of myself and of my students.
Her simple admonishment was just what I needed to hear. I long to be the miracle worker my students need, but honestly, the weight of such expectations will keep me tethered to frustration on a daily basis. So, I again settle in my heart that I just can’t fix it all. BUT I can be the beacon of hope my students need in the midst of their reality… no matter how they perform, which choices they make, or what emotions we encounter in our day. I need to be the one to search for and find those rays of hope. Those steps of success, no matter how small, are worth celebrating as progress!
It’s like mining for gold! Each student, each co-worker, each day… harbors nuggets of gold, virtual treasures waiting to be discovered!3 These gold nuggets are reasons to hope, reasons to be thankful, reasons to press on. That is the hope I need to remember and cling to when a breaking point looms on the horizon! “Gold mining” is an attitude I can and need to share with others who feel suffocated by the overwhelming reality of our chosen profession.
But it’s not educators alone, is it?! You may find yourself drowning under the flood of life’s demands… physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, or financially. Don’t give up hope! And don’t go it alone! There are hope-carriers around you that will remind you to look for the gold nuggets in the dark and suffocating places. You may have to search a little harder on some days than others, but they are there! The world needs you! Don’t jump ship! Find a beacon of hope on the dark days. Be a beacon of hope whenever the need arises.4 Together we can search for gold… reasons to hope and celebrate!
I’m not just a teacher, I’m a treasure hunter! How about you? You’re not just a _____________, you are a treasure hunter too!
Live Loved,
1Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. NLT
2Galatians 6:2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. NLT3II Corinthians 13:11 Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. NLT
3Psalm 139:14 Thank you for
making me so wonderfully complex!
Your
workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. NLT
4II Corinthians 13:11 Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. NLT