Even though I’m retired, I still remember the first few days when school begins — both for the experienced ones and the “first-year” educators! I vividly recall the challenges of my first year of teaching as well as 29 years later becoming a principal. Even though I had an excellent student teaching experience and eight years of assistant principal training, various waves of emotions and thoughts flooded and engulfed me in both situations — joyful anticipation, excitement, the sense of being unsure, “What do I do or say?”
One incident stands out. As a “wet behind the ears” principal, upon my first day’s arrival at the schoolhouse door, a parent — whom I had never met nor did I know that he had a special needs child — aggressively approached me shoving a tape recorder in my face asking various hostile questions pertaining to an upcoming special education hearing. Reality set in. I had inherited him and the hearing from the previous principal. Outwardly, I remained calm. Inwardly, panic. “What do I do or say?”
Or how about the first day of school as a first-year teacher when you finish all the plans and it's noon? Yikes! “Now what?”
Neither as a “first-year” teacher nor as a beginning principal was a mentor assigned to me. It was “sink or swim”. At times I screamed inside with my hand raised up, “HELP! Doesn’t anyone see my hand?”
I am reminded of when I was five, I fell in a pond at a funeral home on the day of my father’s funeral. My sister and cousin were talking on a bench close by. My sister wasn’t looking at me, but my cousin saw my hand as it was going under. She saw my desperation and ran to help.
At your school or workplace, where are your eyes? Are you looking at your co-workers, especially the new ones, in case they need help? They may need a friend and to see the love of Jesus Christ reaching out to them through you.
John 4:35 says, “Do not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?’ Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white with harvest.”
LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND LOOK. As you go about your workday, look for those that are needing encouragement. Look for opportunities to share Christ’s love. Look for the Holy Spirit’s leading. If you will look, you will see the harvest and you will see that it is ripe. Divine appointments are awaiting you each day. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon you BECAUSE you have been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor and the afflicted. Do you see a hand raised? Or hear a cry… “HELP!” The Bible tells us to be instant in season and out of season. We must always be ready to lend a helping hand to those who signal they need our help.
“Do not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?’ Behold I say to you, lift up
your eyes and look on the fields for they are white with harvest.” John 4:35
Comentarios