On My Toes & On My Knees (Part 2)

I didn't have time to drop the girls off in their respective classes that morning. So one was clinging to my right leg and the other to my left as I held the microphone to welcome the 6th-12th graders to church.

As I looked these teens in the eyes, my mind went blank. I didn't have any quip or energetic greeting to give. I sighed into the mic and said, "Do you ever have a morning that just didn't go as you had planned?"

The "minister's wife" mask would NOT stay on and I found myself fumbling through the announcements. Listening to my own voice reverberating from the speakers, it sure didn't seem like I was making much sense. But the kids were gracious and even supportive, actually listening without me trying to compete for their attention with their neighbor, their cell phone or their neighbor's cell phone.

Later, my sweet friend, Allison, who teaches the 7th grade girls, told me how much my transparency meant. And as I've thought about it, I think that was what God used to give me some "real" conversation with my own class that morning. It wasn't forced, but honest and deep and true. I think as a class we learned more from those questions they asked me that morning than from any lesson I had prepped for this school year.

"How do you do it?" one of the young ladies in my class asked. She had been asking a lot of questions about how I discipline and juggle the three little souls God has placed under our stewardship. I had told them the good, the bad and my ugly from the previous hour.

I knew my one word, one name answer of "God!" probably sounded trite to their 17-18 year old ears. So, I went on to explain that the phrase, "God won't give you more than you can handle." isn't Biblical and that, from my experience and Bible study the opposite was actually more accurate.  I shared how God often gives me far more than I can handle so I will rely on Him to see me through.

The conversation changed. We talked of college choices, coaches, teachers and the outcome of the previous night's Miss CHS Pageant. But later that afternoon I got a text. It was that same young woman wanting to draw closer to our God. She was ready to be transparent before Him.

I know that Sunday morning, God used my daughter's sin nature to force me to be transparent before those middle and high school students. He had a deeper purpose to her massive temper tantrum, but that wasn't all He was teaching me.