The End of a Long Week...

       Well, seriously, after the sandal thing, you might imagine what my mental state was by Friday (the "Sandal Scandal" was on Wednesday for those of you who are just joining us...).  The week was full!      

     The day after Back-to-School Night was the all school "Gleaning Field Trip".  This is a time where we go to a local farm, Pete's Produce, and glean their fields to provide food for local food pantries. This is based off of the Israelite custom as described in the Story of Ruth (Read the story of Ruth- it is just a beautiful story of dedication, love, and commitment!).  Usually, we help pick tomatoes and peppers for them.  Because of the warm spring, the harvest was early.   So, there weren't really all that many veggies to pick.  Instead, we pulled up irrigation tubes and pulled out tomato stakes and stacked them.  These kids worked HARD!  My fifth graders were paired with the first graders (to keep these little guys on task but mainly to make sure they don't wander off.  It's a full-time job!).  They grabbed and yanked and pulled and dug.  They paid no thought to the dirt, cuts- anything!  They were truly serving the Lord with their whole hearts and bodies!  I wish I could post pictures of the beautiful faces of these children!  Praise God for the little children!

     The last two days of the week were very positive ones concerning my students' behavior.  They are settling down into the routine of our family, and their behavior has been fantastic.  All of your prayers have definitely been heard and appreciated!   I must admit that I feared this class because of their reputation for misbehavior.  The first few weeks were rocky.  They wore me down.  I haven't decorated for Fall still because between them and my cold, I was just wiped.  Christine, from Preferably Prim, has been an encouragement to me in my prayer for this class. The verse in this devotional from Morning and Evening, "For this child I prayed," really stuck with me.  I know Hannah was praying for a child of her own because she did not have a child and her husband's other wife had many.  However, it is a demonstration of how "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much..."  I can sit here and fret and complain about the behavior of my class, but what they need is my dedicated prayer.  For these children, I prayed...

 Evening

by Charles Spurgeon

 "For this child I prayed."
1 Samuel 1:27

Devout souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in answer to supplication, for they can see God's especial love in them. When we can name our blessings Samuel, that is, "asked of God," they will be as dear to us as her child was to Hannah. Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in prayer: Hannah's one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings. How sweet was that water to Samson which he found at "the well of him that prayed!" Quassia cups turn all waters bitter, but the cup of prayer puts a sweetness into the draughts it brings. Did we pray for the conversion of our children? How doubly sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions fulfilled! Better to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our bodies. Have we sought of the Lord some choice spiritual gift? When it comes to us it will be wrapped up in the gold cloth of God's faithfulness and truth, and so be doubly precious. Have we petitioned for success in the Lord's work? How joyful is the prosperity which comes flying upon the wings of prayer! It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations. Even when prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer for the delay; the child Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found him after having sought him sorrowing. That which we win by prayer we should dedicate to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel. The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it. Here will be a special occasion for saying, "Of thine own have I given unto thee." Reader, is prayer your element or your weariness? Which?

 

Praise God for the things HE has done!

Blessings,

Heather