A little insight into my world

Last night marked the end of my first stint teaching the 6th grade girls class on Wednesday nights at our church. We had 15 girls who came fairly regularly. These 15 girls stole my heart. I never dreamed that could be possible to this extent. I figured I'd become fond of them but it goes way beyond that. I will really miss them. I'd never taught this age group before last summer when I was recruited to help with Learning to Lead camp at ACU during one week in the summer. And then I signed on more or less as crowd control to backup a friend and her daughter with a group of 20 kids going into 6th grade. My ulterior motive was to get my own son to go. The morning of day 4 I got a call from said friend who informed me that her daughter had kidney stones and they'd been at the hospital all night. I was on my own. I nearly panicked and then I remembered God was in control. I decided to trust Him. It was such a blessing. I learned alot about listening and hearing God, trusting and obeying and the incredible sense of relief and comaraderie and no-longer-aloneness one can feel when you do listen, hear, trust and obey. It gave me the confidence to walk up to Diane Cope's car one day at soccer practice and say without thinking, "Hey Diane, if you ever need help in the 6th grade girls class, I'd be willing." (Willingness is another huge lesson I'm learning and have come a long way developing.) I walked away and 20 minutes later my whole life changed. It seems she was sitting in the car praying that God would show her who He wanted to be in there helping her teach. One of her teachers had decided to move on and the other was pregnant and would need some time off. So she was pretty much blown away by my offhanded suggestion. She came up to me sitting in my lawn chair and asked if I really meant it. I said, "sure I guess so." And the rest is, as they say, is History. Diane has told me several times throughout this past year that this is where I am supposed to be. It has been fun. It has been insightful. It has been challenging. It has been moving. I'll have a hard time letting these 15 girls go. I'll miss each one of them. God has used them to change my life and the way I think of myself and of Him. I will never be the same. I hope they won't either.