Thankful for beginnings and endings

Yesterday was my last day teaching the ABCs class at the Christian school where I have worked this year. I have thankfully succeeded in teaching all four of my charges to read simple books, write every letter of the alphabet, and stand in lines. I will leave it up to the next teacher to help them perfect the art of leaving spaces between words and bringing in their posessions from the playground when the bell goes. I tried this year, but I am sorry to say that much improvement in some students' behaviour is still required.

The last day of school also happened to be my fortnightly day to take staff devotions. Here are some of the points I shared.

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Christ is the one who "opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens" (Rev. 3:7). He is also the beginning and the end. He has existed since before the world came into being, and he will still be there when it is gone. It is a comfort to know that God controls all beginnings and endings. Sometimes things being wonderfully and end in ways we do not desire, and that hurt us deeply. At other times we begin something that seems hard and it turns out to be a huge blessing. We cannot tell what our beginnings and endings will be. We do not know what will come to us in the next year, but we do know the one who controls what will happen. It is comforting and confidence building to consider the unchanging character of God. He controls all for our good and His glory. As John 3:30 says, "He must increase, but I must decrease".

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During staff devotions we also prayed, as we always do. This has been a constant point of encouragement to me this year, as we come before God together and place our confidence in him.

Yesterday morning we also had a party for all the primary school children. Before we ate each person in the room shared something they were thankful for about the year. It was nice that so many of them were thankful for their teachers :). I shared that I was thankful for my year at the school, for the blessing of knowing the children and staff, and for the memories I will carry away with me. I am thankful for many specific things I didn't mention: the hand of a child holding mine as we walk around the oval, seeing the children grow in their understanding of the gospel and of God, learning about how to teach, having my own classroom to put up displays in, making friends, and growing flowers in the courtyard outside. I see the job as an answered prayer. Even the courage to take the job came from God, I believe. I have not had much confidence in my ability to work since I had some very bad experiences with my back pain in previous jobs. It has been wonderful to realise that there are some jobs that are manageable for me. The staff have been extremely considerate of my difficulties as well.

However, as I complete this year I am also grateful that my time working at the school has come to an end. At times it has been difficult to keep on going with a lot of back and leg pain. It has also been challenging to board away from home in a place that is not really my "home". It is someone else's home, with someone else's things. While I am very grateful for the kindness of the lady who allowed me to live there, and I see her kindness as an answered prayer, I would not like to live in similar circumstances again. Due to the fact that my "home" was two and a half hours away from my work this year, I often made the two and a half hour bus ride back home to visit my family and friends. This was a constant strain of packing and unpacking and effectively living in two places. It will be lovely to be able to avoid that next year! I might even be able to put my suitcase away in the cupboard, rather than having it constantly reside on the floor of whichever room I am staying in at the time.