Back to school for teachers

Today is August 6th , and this is my last weekend of vacation. It's back to school for me. I welcome this new school year with opened arms. I will be a lead teacher this year. This has been about two years in the making. I've had my degree for a few years, and I worked in business when I worked for my ex-husband's company. I actually did accounting. I decided to change my career after I got a divorce. I moved from Michigan to Texas very wide eyed, and hopeful. The journey was a little longer than I expected. I hit the ground running, substitute teaching and taking education courses simultaneously. I was getting accustomed to a new city and making new friends and work associates. It was exciting and stressful at times, but I knew I'd made the right choice in moving. I took a job as a paraprofessional, partly to get experience in my field, but also because the job that I thought would be forthcoming quickly, did not materialize.

I talked to fellow educators, watched the news, and later realized that Texas was going through upheaval in the field of education precisely at the time that I was trying to break into the field. I thought, "I could have stayed where I was for this."  That was just my frustration talking. I knew I was right where I needed to be, at the right time.

Fast forward two years and I got the job I wanted. I know that God is faithful. This is huge for me. It was humbling to work in a job where I was basically overqualified. It was humbling to meet up with teachers in the teacher's lounge and the copy room and resist the temptation to prove that I was just as qualified as they are to teach, yet I was an assistant.

At times like that, I had to go to God to see things from his perspective. He kept pushing me, either through a sermon, a scripture, or even a word long sense spoken over me prophetically, that things were not over, but that they were just beginning.

This has been a time for me to grow, to understand how tough I can be in crunch time, and has been a lesson in perseverance and patience. Through faith and patience we obtain God's promises to us. I can say that I have had to live that for the past two years. I know that I have grown through this time.

I just want to encourage any single parent, newly divorced person, anyone in transition, male or female, to keep on moving forward. Things may not change over night, but they will change if you stay in faith and don't give up.