Practice What You Teach

     Since 2017 is coming to a close, I've been reflecting a lot lately about this past year. If I had to describe the year 2017 in a sentence, I'll admit the first thought I had was, "this year has been really hard." The more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to add, "and rewarding" to the end of that sentence.   One of the things I love the most is writing in my journal every night. I was reading from one of my journals the other night, and I came across an entry where I was describing a Sunday School class. Someone in the class that day commented, "I think that we go through trials when the Lord feels we are ready to grow." That struck me, and as I thought back on my year, I realized that my growth during this tough year has come SO slowly and in such small steps that I had barely noticed it at all. When I really took the time to think about it, it was almost like it was staring me right in the face. I decided the best thing I c

       I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling a lot of anxiety. I was stressed, overwhelmed, tired, and just having a hard time being back to reality after Thanksgiving break. The feelings didn't let up when I got to school, and I started wondering how I was going to make it through the day.         I had morning duty, and my post was where the 5th and 6th graders wait for the bell, which is right by the cafeteria and the main door where the students come in. One of my students saw me as he was coming out of the cafeteria after breakfast. He came up to me and asked if he could stay with me and help me. I decided talking with this student was preferable to going through my lengthy to do list in my head, which wasn't exactly helping me much, so I told him he could. He turns to me and goes, " Miss Freeman, I have an idea! Every time I see someone from our class walk by I'm going to tell them that they should stay here and help you too! Can I?" I was like, "kno