Home. Teaching.

Today was our first full day of home teaching complete with Zoom sessions and the doling out of this week's assignments. Our Zoom session went pretty well, other than the fact that the teacher could not hear us during session one, and we could not see her during part of session two. Seeing that we used a few of our spring break days to “practice” our “school schedule”, we thought we would surely be prepared. Or not. We did have a designated work space in place. We did have sharpened pencils and blank paper on the writing table. What we did not have, was a plan for when the 5th grader became overwhelmed as the assignments for the entire day hit the inbox all at once. Thus ensued a counseling session (now we know why schools need counselors) in which I attempted to assure her that the future of her career was not hanging in the balance of whether or not we figured out how to upload her 5th grade writing assignment correctly. Unfortunately for me, this conversation was overheard by the kindergartner (born with a basketball in his hand) who asks daily why it even matters if we do schoolwork at home. I have been telling him it is because if he wants to get a job someday….. Sigh. We did manage to get most of our schoolwork done in the first half of the day, but before you find that impressive I should tell you that we did not eat lunch until 2:00. The bright spots in the middle of the day were our countdown to Easter devotional and getting outside for an hour of physical (albeit not overly physical) activity. The person who is learning the most of course, is me. I am learning that teaching flexibility, humility, and surrender are a lot harder than teaching addition. Mostly because they are better caught than taught. I am learning that you can set a rhythm but the tempo will likely change and that is okay. You can wait for it to change back or...you can choose to sing along. I am learning how vital it is to keep the main things, and the Main Thing, the main things. I am learning even in the best of circumstances, how difficult that can actually be.

Lord help me as You teach me, and I teach my children. Help me to be teachable, and more of a teacher than a preacher, because that is what they need. You are the Main thing, help us hold You in Your rightful place of honor. Help us do our best, even if no one else can see our classroom, because You can. Thank You for graciously teaching us, help us sprinkle that grace around as we learn and grow together. We pray for the heartache and hardship this pandemic is causing. We pray for your provision and protection, and mostly that You would impress upon our hearts that You are at hand, and You will always be enough. Amen.

PS- And if possible, we would appreciate some help working out the glitches in our Zoom technology...