The Lord has surely put within your heart a desire to teach. You have been on the front lines and now you wonder if you want to pursue that desire. Let me tell you about my first year of teaching.

            I started school the first week with stars in my eyes. I was going to be the perfect teacher and every child was going to learn. At the end of the first week, I decided I didn’t know anything about teaching despite my B.A. and M.A. in education.

            I commuted 66 miles round trip and I had 39 students in my third grade class. I was completely overwhelmed. At the end of the first week, my husband urged me to resign because I came home every day with headaches and had to have a nap before I could even go to bed.

            I finally decided I would turn in my resignation after I received my first pay- check. (Which was $800.00)

            Meanwhile my students began to bond with me. They told me how much they loved being in my room and looked forward coming to school. Some even told me they wished I were their mother. (Some didn’t have a mother and I realized how desperately they needed me.)

            I made many mistakes that first year but the children needed me. I found out I could fill a need in their little lives.

            Yes, I had discipline problems you wouldn’t believe. On the first day a little boy stood up in his chair and crowed like a rooster. Another one had mustard packs in his back pockets (from the show the night before) and he kept plopping down hard in his seat, bursting them because he liked to hear the “pop.” We smelled mustard all over the place.

            My principal brought me some little pamphlets called, “Tips on Discipline.” I devoured that little pamphlet. One of the tips said to have all the children who have “blue eyes,” line up first, or “brown eyes,” or socks, etc. The second week of school finally came and I thought the 3 o’clock bell would never ring. I went to the door so befuddled, I said, “All the children with two eyes may line up.”

            After the stampede, the last little boy came by and said, “Teacher, you get sillier every day!”

            In spite of everything, day-by-day, I became “hooked on teaching.”  When May rolled around, I felt both happy and sad. Happy, that in spite of all my “boo-boos,” these children had won my heart. I found myself planning for next year. A lot of new ideas and strategies beckoned me.

            The students’ achievement scores during my first year as a workingwoman were extraordinarily good. My students had learned anyway, but I learned more that they did.

            When I first began teaching, I lived for Fridays. After 31 years of teaching, I lived for Mondays.

            My students became my teacher through the years. They gave me a priceless gift… a child’s heart and I am forever grateful.

            At this point in my life I’m proud that I tried to do the best I could in making a difference in the world…that I did something for a child that no one else could do in the span of time I had in that child’s life.

            Dear new teacher, if God has called you to teach, you will not be happy doing anything else. God will help you be successful and He will be with you every step of the way. I’m so thankful for the plan God had for me.

            Hang in there. The children need you.

            Who knows but you were born for such a time as this?