Ah, good morning readers. If you are a teacher, you know how I’m feeling right now. We have 8 days left (seven because we are taking a personal day on Friday). I’ve got that “It’s May and my bones are tired” feeling. This year has flown by and it’s been hard, so much harder than I anticipated. Being a first-year teacher again, along with the language barrier, makes every day unique to the nth degree. While I miss those at my old school, I wouldn’t change this either. It’s been a heck of a change, but a good change.

Which brings me to this week’s slice. Sunday, we ushered at our church, a small Methodist church a town over. We’ve cut back our church going because our congregation has gone through a series of pastors that we didn’t connect with on any level. Our current pastor is one we’ve had before, and we enjoy her immensely, but we’ve also found peace in our Sunday morning routine.

Anyway, we arrive early and talk to our pastor. She’s a bubbly Korean woman who came into the ministry as a second career. She’s been to our place a couple of times and loves the area where we live. Her house is in a nearby town, so she can drive down into our valley, and she told us when she passes our house, that she “prays for us to come back to the church” and for us to know that “someone is praying for you”.

#damn

Yeah, nothing like a little emotional manipulation to get you on a Sunday morning. It did make us smile and that’s who she is. She very passionate about the ministry so we can’t fault her. She was good with our daughters and they connected well with her.

Her sermon was titled “Living the Resurrection” and she hooked me with this comment. She was talking about a weaver of some sort (I had zoned out a bit) and how people watching her weave closely could only see the tangled mess of threads as she worked. However, when they took a step back, that mess suddenly took shape, creating a beautiful tapestry that all could see. She then related it back to our own lives, how it looks like a mess while we are in the middle of it, but when we step back to look at the whole of our lives, it forms something of beauty.

#nice

I agree and it was one of those times I felt like she was talking right to my wife and I. We’ve both had difficult years. Her because she’s got 4 major behaviors in her room at 19 kindergarteners. As I’ve said before, I’m a new teacher in a district with a very diverse population. When we are in the midst of what we are doing, we look like a hot mess for sure! But, when we step back and see what we’ve done as a whole, it’s pretty cool. We are known as “the love birds” around the school because we do everything today. We laugh a lot. Driving together makes life a lot easier and the connections we make help our relationship get stronger. Knowing that we are both in the same boat helps out. Just having that person who understands lifts us both up.

So, as you are thinking about your own lives, they may seem like a tangled mess, but step back. See what it looks like from that different perspective and how beautiful your life truly looks.

You might be surprised.

I was! 🙂