Help

I wrote yesterday about only having one student left that needs to pass my perfect test on linear functions.  It feels like the parable Jesus told of the shepherd who had 100 sheep and lost one.  He left the other 99 and went looking for the lost one.  When he found it, he was very happy.  I always wondered what happened to the 99 while the shepherd was gone.  Who looked after the sheep?  I am not god.  Jesus looks after all of us, all the time.  I need to not get so focused on my lost sheep that I stop caring for all the rest.  I need to love all of my students right where they are at.  They are all in so many different places.  It feels so impossible and is.  I NEED GOD'S HELP.  I need prayer.  I need help from my students.  I need help from all my students to seek to grow and be more and more responsible.  I need help from my successful students to reach out and connect with their neighbor and help them.  I need help from my struggling students to seek help and confirmation of understanding from their neighbor and me.

I am so close to the goal I set last fall... I don't want to become blind to all the rest of my students.  I need to teach them all and reach the struggling individuals.  It feels overwhelming most of the time.  There is such a strong and powerful urge to give up on many of my students.  I need to continually be filled with God's love, grace, wisdom, faith and hope.  I can not well these up in myself.  They have to come from God.  I am always encouraged by, "In my weakness His strength is made perfect."  When I feel my weakest, it is then that I've lost all pride... it is then that I get to step aside and watch God do amazing things.  "I must decrease so He can increase."

Day 92