Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. A new day to rise and move with fresh doses of equipping grace to do everything the Lord has called you to today.

If He has placed the assignment in your path and called you to it, He will equip your hands, steady your feet, and sustain you all the way to completion.

In my county, today is the first day back for students. We have students attending in person classes, students attending virtual, real time instruction that follows the school bell schedule, and other students attending full virtual instruction with flexibility on when they sign in.

We have teachers working in roles they have never done before. Teachers who have taught in classrooms their whole career will be meeting their kids today on a computer screen. And almost everything these teachers would normally plan for the first day had to be redesigned to work online.

We have teachers who are teaching face to face, but because of all of the safety procedures, this first day also had to be redesigned to keep everyone at a safe distance.

We have students who haven’t had to wake up by an alarm since March who will be rising today with anticipation and excitement to learn, and others may not share in their excitement.

It’s a brand new ball game today, and yet in the weeks prior to this day, I felt a steady resolve in our district by teachers, staff, and administrators to just overcome every single hurdle and make it work.

Through it all, they have chosen to:

Make socially distanced classrooms inviting.

Make the online lessons engaging and fun.

Build the relationships with the families.

Redesign the lessons.

Rethink the procedures.

And make it all work for kids!

I am in awe of the resilience in my profession. I am in awe of teachers and their ability to scale mountains for their students.

Today, they will encounter more bumps in the road because first days are just like that. Unexpected always shows up. But they will handle each one poised and gracefully. They will find solutions to the wildest things. Things just happen when you are working with kids: shoes break, accidents happen, kids don’t remember how they are supposed to go home, and now masks will get lost, traded, flung across the room… But teachers will find a way to work through it all. They always do.

Even through the craziness of this pandemic and all the changes to education that it has brought with it, I choose to partner with the promises of God. I can rise today and two choices are set before me:

1. Partner with all the fear and the gloom and doom of how different everything looks right now

2. Or I can choose to feast my eyes above the swirling storm and right on the Word and promises of the Lord.

So for all of the teachers and anyone who works in a school or for a school, here are some promises we can stand firm and secure on as we head into this school year.

When you are fearful, remember:

When you are unsure of the future:

When you are tired:

When you feel your hope deflating:

When you feel frustrated:

When you feel like no one sees you:

God has chosen you for this very day. You are heading into your schools today on Holy assignment. These kids have been hand picked by the Father for you because you have something in you that they need. You are commissioned to these kids. And everytime you feel weak, flee to the Lord. You will find all you need in Him.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Equip every teacher across the globe for the task you have assigned to them. Fill them with everything they need to step into their classrooms with boldness, courage, and resilience. Give them strength to keep going on days when they feel like they can’t handle one more thing. Lord, give them a fresh dose of Your peace. A new peace to reign over their minds and a peace that drives away worry and fear. Lord, give them Holy Spirit solutions for every problem they encounter. Lord, protect them and hold them close to You. Lord, let us push past every struggle and flourish in education this year!

In Jesus’s name, Amen.