The ROCK Is Between The Hard Place And You

Welcome back W O N D E R teachers!  

Here we are!  Today we are closing out our series, Wonder Teachers, with the letter R. Goodness, it has gone by fast. Amen?!

From W to R and all the characters in between, I’ve enjoyed sharing about the WONDERful men and women in God’s word from whom we can glean knowledge on how to walk out life daily in the classroom.  Indeed, I’ll bet they never thought teachers might gain wisdom from their walk with the Lord many hundreds of years later!

I actually wrote this post a while back, tweaking it just a wee bit for this series.  The title is from a southern gospel song with the same name.  It’s probably my favorite of all the posts I’ve written.  It’s also the post receiving the most visits.  Why? Well, that’s an easy question to answer!… It’s about THE ROCK.  Read on, dear teachers, and God bless you. Thank you for visiting today.

The ROCK Is Between The Hard Place And You

How would you describe your teaching career thus far?  Here’s mine in a nutshell…

Year:

1.   Difficult

2.   Good with a few rough spots

3.   Good with a few rough spots

4.   Wonderful

5.   Difficult

6.   Terrible

7.   Terrible

8.   Worst Ever

9.   Wonderful

10.   Wonderful

11.   Wonderful

12.   Wonderful

13.   Wonderful

14.   So far so good…

As you can see, the scales are favoring the good years over the bad years at this point. Praise the Lord!  Years 5, 6, 7, and 8 nearly finished me off as a teacher though.

Especially year 8.  At the end of that year, I had purposed in my heart to the Lord I was done.  I was out of here.  Clearly, teaching was not what He wanted me to do.  I had heard wrong.  Four back to back years of awfulness was all I could take, and after all, perhaps it was a sign from Him that it wasn’t His will for me to teach… or so I thought.

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! I can’t even come up with enough adjectives to describe the abyss I was in.  I wanted so desperately to teach and be a good teacher.  Having cried out to the Lord COUNTLESS times during those 4 years, NOTHING was happening…it was over…BUT THEN…!!!

Due to some faculty changes, I was the beneficiary of my current position.  It was a complete 180 degree turn at jet engine speed no less!

You see, even though I had prayed and prayed and things had only gotten worse, God knew I was at the end of my pitiful rope and things needed to change RIGHT THEN.  He knew I couldn’t take anymore.  He knew my heart. He knows your heart too. If you are in between a rock and a hard place, believe me when I say, the ROCK is between the hard place and you!

Take a look at this picture!  Of all things, there is a sheep standing on a rock between a hard place.  Ha!  Remember, over and over again in God’s word, we are referred to as sheep, and the Lord is our Shepherd, our Rock, and Fortress.  The sheep is safe as long as it stays where it is. On The Rock.

Stand on the Rock, dear teachers!

If you’re experiencing some turbulent times as a teacher, trust God. Cry out to Him.  He is listening. Your prayers are not falling on deaf ears.  He is between you and that difficult circumstance.  He will come through. Every. Time.

One final thought.  In the big scheme of things, I firmly believe the enemy wants to take Christian teachers out of the classrooms of all our nations’ schools.  Amen?  What a victory for him that would be.  He about took me out!  Please don’t let him do that to you.

Therefore, remember we are in our classrooms everyday Representing Our Coming King! He is sufficient to help us press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14  He will see our calling through to completion if we stand on Him and His word. Philippians 1:6  And we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us!  Philippians 4:13

I admonish you today and everyday to stand on the ROCK, my fellow Christian teachers, and ROCK on!  

God bless you and stay devoted.

#TheRocksBetweenTheHardPlaceAndYou  #JesusIsTheRock  #WonderTeachers

The ROCK Is Between The Hard Place And You

How would you describe your teaching career thus far?  Here’s mine in a nutshell…

Year:

1.   Difficult

2.   Good with a few rough spots

3.   Good with a few rough spots

4.   Wonderful

5.   Difficult

6.   Terrible

7.   Terrible

8.   Worst Ever

9.   Wonderful

10.   Wonderful

11.   Wonderful

12.   Wonderful

13.   So far so good…

As you can see, the scales are favoring the good years over the bad years at this point. Praise the Lord!  Years 5, 6, 7, and 8 nearly finished me off as a teacher though.

Especially year 8.  At the end of that year, I had purposed in my heart to the Lord I was done.  I was out of there.  Clearly, teaching was not what He wanted me to do.  I had heard wrong.  Four back to back years of awfulness was all I could take, and after all, perhaps it was a sign from Him that it wasn’t His will for me to teach… or so I thought.

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! I can’t even come up with enough adjectives to describe the abyss I was in.  I wanted so desperately to teach and be a good teacher.  Having cried out to the Lord COUNTLESS times during those 4 years, NOTHING was happening…it was over…BUT THEN…!!!

Due to some faculty changes, I was the beneficiary of my current position.  It was a complete 180 degree turn at jet engine speed no less!

You see, even though I had prayed and prayed and things had only gotten worse, God knew when I was at the end of my pitiful rope, things had to change RIGHT THEN.  He knew I couldn’t take anymore.  He knew my heart. He knows your heart too.  If you are in between a rock and a hard place, believe me when I say, the ROCK is between the hard place and you!

Take a look at this picture!  Of all things, there is a sheep standing on a rock between a hard place.  Ha!  Remember, over and over again in God’s word, we are referred to as sheep, and the Lord is our Shepherd, our Rock, and Fortress.  The sheep is safe as long as it stays where it is. On The Rock.

Stand on the Rock, dear teachers!

If you’re experiencing some turbulent times as a teacher, trust God. Cry out to Him.  He is listening. Your prayers are not falling on deaf ears.  He is between you and that difficult circumstance.  He will come through. Every. Time.

One final thought.  In the big scheme of things, I firmly believe the enemy wants to take Christian teachers out of the classrooms of all our nations’ schools.  Amen?  What a victory for him that would be.  He about took me out!  Please don’t let him do that to you.

Therefore, remember we are in our classrooms everyday Representing Our Coming King! He is sufficient to help us press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14  He will see our calling through to completion if we stand on Him and His word. Philippians 1:6  And we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us!  Philippians 4:13

I admonish you today and everyday to stand on the ROCK, my fellow Christian teachers, and ROCK on!  

God bless you and stay devoted.

#TheRocksBetweenTheHardPlaceAndYou  #JesusIsTheRock

The ROCK Is Between The Hard Place And You

How would you describe your teaching career thus far?  Here’s mine in a nutshell…

Year:

1.   Difficult

2.   Good with a few rough spots

3.   Good with a few rough spots

4.   Wonderful

5.   Difficult

6.   Terrible

7.   Terrible

8.   Worst Ever

9.   Wonderful

10.   Wonderful

11.   Wonderful

12.   Wonderful

13.   So far so good…

As you can see, the scales are favoring the good years over the bad years at this point. Praise the Lord!  Years 5, 6, 7, and 8 nearly finished me off as a teacher though.

Especially year 8.  At the end of that year, I had purposed in my heart to the Lord I was done.  I was out of there.  Clearly, teaching was not what He wanted me to do.  I had heard wrong.  Four back to back years of awfulness was all I could take, and after all, perhaps it was a sign from Him that it wasn’t His will for me to teach… or so I thought.

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! I can’t even come up with enough adjectives to describe the abyss I was in.  I wanted so desperately to teach and be a good teacher.  Having cried out to the Lord COUNTLESS times during those 4 years, NOTHING was happening…it was over…BUT THEN…!!!

Due to some faculty changes, I was the beneficiary of my current position.  It was a complete 180 degree turn at jet engine speed no less!

You see, even though I had prayed and prayed and things had only gotten worse, God knew when I was at the end of my pitiful rope, things had to change RIGHT THEN.  He knew I couldn’t take anymore.  He knew my heart. He knows your heart too.  If you are in between a rock and a hard place, believe me when I say, the ROCK is between the hard place and you!

Take a look at this picture!  Of all things, there is a sheep standing on a rock between a hard place.  Ha!  Remember, over and over again in God’s word, we are referred to as sheep, and the Lord is our Shepherd, our Rock, and Fortress.  The sheep is safe as long as it stays where it is. On The Rock.

Stand on the Rock, dear teachers!

If you’re experiencing some turbulent times as a teacher, trust God. Cry out to Him.  He is listening. Your prayers are not falling on deaf ears.  He is between you and that difficult circumstance.  He will come through. Every. Time.

One final thought.  In the big scheme of things, I firmly believe the enemy wants to take Christian teachers out of the classrooms of all our nations’ schools.  Amen?  What a victory for him that would be.  He about took me out!  Please don’t let him do that to you.

Therefore, remember we are in our classrooms everyday Representing Our Coming King! He is sufficient to help us press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14  He will see our calling through to completion if we stand on Him and His word. Philippians 1:6  And we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us!  Philippians 4:13

I admonish you today and everyday to stand on the ROCK, my fellow Christian teachers, and ROCK on!  

God bless you and stay devoted.

#TheRocksBetweenTheHardPlaceAndYou  #JesusIsTheRock

That Class That Drives You Up The Wall!

Hello fellow teachers!

Maybe it’s just that time of year, but I’ve noticed there seems to be a lot of posting in the educational blogging sphere about teachers giving up due, in part, to difficulties with classroom management.  I find that very discouraging, so what I thought I would do is share a post with you entitled That Class That Drives You Up The Wall!

What do we do when we encounter that class? One thing that can help is learning to train ourselves and our students to do certain things in certain situations. There’s not just one pat answer, but hopefully the acronym t r a i n in today’s vlog will produce some much needed results as far as improving your students’ behavior.  In the next couple of weeks, I’m also going to share some other ideas with you that might help you even more.  I certainly hope so anyway!

Be encouraged teachers, and hangeth thou in there!  Your work for the Lord is not in vain.  God bless you!

Awaken! Arise! Fight the Good Fight of Faith! 1st Timothy 6:11-12

“I want my life to be the song You sing”… is one of my favorite lines from the Casting Crowns song, Until the Whole World Hears. Do you want your life to be the song He sings?  I do!  I try to play this song as often as I can before going to school each day, because it just fires me up! Not. Kidding.  I am ready to do BIG things for God in my classroom and throughout the school day after I hear it. I challenge you to listen to this song every day for a week and see if it lights a fire in you as well. Click on this link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7qi2KlUffs, and it will take you right to it!  Seriously though, teaching is a BIG calling, and the time we have our students is short.  We need to be more urgent, so here are some important questions for you to consider:  Are you awake?!  Have you arisen?!  Are you fighting the good fight of faith?!  I hope your answer to each of those questions is a resounding YES!  If not, it’s time to reexamine our lives and perhaps reorder our priorities as Christian teachers. I hope the blog inspires you today!

Donna

PS. Here are the links for the other blogs mentioned in the vlog today:

http://devotionsforteachers.org/2014/10/02/arresting-apathy-revelation-24-5-2/

http://devotionsforteachers.org/2014/04/12/april-14-20-2014-a-big-teacher-revolution-1st-peter-31-2/

8 To Be Great!… The Finale! Matthew 10:45

We’ve made it to the end of our series 8 To Be Great!… The 8 traits successful people, or in our case, successful Christian teachers, have in common.  It all started with passion, and it ends with…. well, you are fixing to find that out for yourself! 😉

On another note, this will be the last vlog of 2014 as we are 4 days away from Christmas break here in Georgia.  Praise the Lord!  If you’re like me, you are COVERED UP with things to do before the end of this first semester.  May God bless us all and keep us sane for the next 4 days! lol  I am praying for The Lord to bless you and make you the successful teacher He plans for you to be!

Grace and peace to you and remember:  Jesus is the reason for the season!

See you in January!

Donna

8 To Be Great…Pt. 4 Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! Psalm 40:1-4

Hello teachers,

What does Rocky Balboa have to do with 8 To Be Great? He embodies the next 2 traits of successful people that we are taking a look at today on the blog.  I’m thinking we, as teachers, need to be encouraged to do these 2 things as well, especially when we get stuck.  Are you stuck?  If you are, I hope this will help you to get out of that pit!

God bless you in your classroom,

Donna

Run It By The Lord! Isaiah 30:21

February 24 – March 2, 2014 SHAPE Your Students! James 5:16