The Tide

I love reading aloud to my class and rereading books that have touched me. This past week I started reading Rules by Cynthia Lord and came across a great image. The narrator is talking about the difference between high and low tide and how she can tell which it is just by driving by--the different smells and colors.

I've been trying to get a handle on how things are going this fall for me and this seems to be the best image that I can come across--it's like the tide. Things don't ever seem to be stable for long. One week, day, or even hour, things can seem to be settled and it feels like low tide--I can stand up and walk around and spend time combing the beach for shells left when the tide went out.

That can all change in an instant with a phone call, parent stopping by, checking my email, or walking into the office. Suddenly it is high tide and I am struggling to keep treading water and not get swept out to sea. I don't want to give the impression that it's all bad though. Learning to tread water is a great skill (figuratively as well as in 'real life'--I was a lifeguard/swim instructor) and then to be able to move toward higher ground in the midst of high tide--figuring out which things need to become necessities and which things can be swept away.

It has been good for me to find glimpses of the bigger picture. At parent teacher conferences, one of the families took time to close our conference in prayer. Wow! It was an encouragement to be reminded of God's faithfulness and to hear their prayers for me and the school. Friday night I was able to step back and be reminded of the joys of being around the kids at BCA. StuCu stayed after school to set up for a cafe night and we ordered pizza and enjoyed playing games before the event got started. I love looking around at the room at the students and thinking about the amazing ways that God is working in their lives. This morning as I proctored the ACT test, I was thrilled to be able to pray for those students from BCA sitting in that room--that God would direct their paths, lead them to himself, grow them into men/women of God, etc. How amazing to have this privilege. And all this in the midst of high tide and a hard week. God is so good!!!

(I don't know a ton about tides, etc so if my analogy is a bit off for those of you who do, I'm sorry...)