2-2-20 Your Story
Quote: “Your story could be the key that unlocks someone else’s prison. Don’t be afraid to share it.”
Many of you know my story. I am a teacher. My first 7 years had been in lower elementary, mostly 1st grade. Then there was an opportunity to move to upper elementary at a new school. I was terrified but I wanted to be at Auburn Elementary more than anything. I spent 6 years teaching the “big kids” of the school. I had found my nitch. Teaching 5th grade was what made me realize how much I loved to read and write. For some strange reason, teaching students to fall in love with our language was what got me out of bed some days. I loved my teaching team and I LOVED teaching pre-teens.
And then I was moved from 5th grade…to kindergarten.
This is the biggest move an elementary teacher can make. I had an early childhood degree and my principal needed me to trust him, that he knew what was best for the school. He needed me to teach in my area of expertise.
I fought that move, kicking and screaming the entire way. I was devastated. I was leaving a comfortable, predictable job to become a teacher to the cutest yet neediest of students. Bitterness, resentment, and anger were the words that best described how I felt. It was out of my circle of control. And I was definitely angry with God.
Being a kindergarten teacher is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had. It is exhausting and challenging and sometimes I literally feel like all I’ve done all day is herd cattle. It’s the craziest of jobs – you teach and repeat the same things over and over for months and then all of a sudden – they get it! Letters become words and words become sentences. Numbers have meaning. And being kind to your friends becomes one of the most important goals on the planet. You realize they are actually listening to what you are saying! lol
But then in year #4, I started a “Things I Love About Teaching Kindergarten” chart in the closet in my classroom. Every time something amazing happened, I added it to the paper. And a weird thing started happening. Names started appearing. Misty. Liz. Amy. Jaime. Holly. Pretty soon there were names all over this list. Kaycie. Heather. Sheila. Becky. Jessica. Karris. Megan. Nikki. Rebecca. Talaya. Melissa. Abbi. God had given me friends…mom friends! These were my student’s moms and we were becoming part of each other’s villages! I wasn’t just a kindergarten teacher anymore.
I share this story because someone out there needs to hear this: your story matters. Maybe someone will read my story and say, “Okay, maybe I need to look at this challenge I’m experiencing differently. Maybe I need to focus on the positive. What if I started counting my blessings instead?”
Everyone has a story! But when we keep our struggles to ourselves, we are blocking the blessing our stories could have on someone else. Don’t want to go to that Bible study because you’re struggling? What if you sit next to someone that needs to hear what you’re struggling through and you help each other through it…TOGETHER! When we don’t put ourselves out there, we just may be missing opportunities to share our story. Everyone has a story and no one’s story is mess free. Depression. Change. Addiction. A health scare. Divorce. An unexpected job change.
Everyone’s story is worth sharing.
The Bible is full of people’s stories. What if we never read John’s account of living and walking with Jesus when He was on earth? What if Solomon hadn’t recorded the nuggets of wisdom God had spoken to him in the book of Proverbs? What if Paul hadn’t written his stories down? We wouldn’t have a huge chunk of our New Testament! In one of his books, he says, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ…” (Colossians 4:3)
My story is simple. I had to learn to trust that God knew what I needed, when I needed it most. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
What’s yours?
