Dear Test-Anxious Teacher Friends,
Over the weekend, I was looking at Numbers 13, where the
Israelites send spies to scope out the promise land. The spies report,
"The land was flowing with milk and honey but we look like grasshoppers
next to the people there." They saw themselves as weak... They let fear
rule... The spoke death instead of life over their situations. And because of
that, they missed out on the promise land.
In all honesty, I battle anxiety a lot. And these
tests we have coming up threaten to throw me into a tailspin. They make me feel
like a grasshopper, small and out of control.
But here's the thing... God called us to this profession
even though he knew what we'd be up against. He gives us favor with our
students and their families. This is our mission. I don't know if our promise
land includes the test scores that we've always gotten. But I know that the
Lord doesn't measure our success by test scores. His goal for us is to glorify
him, to love on his children, to use this short time we get with them to demonstrate
what grace and truth look like, to live out His ways even when we can't say His
name.
I'm afraid I'll miss that if I'm not really intentional
over the next few weeks. These test scores are "the decedents of
Anak," giants that make us feel like grasshoppers if we focus on them too
hard. However, they're not the key to the promise land.
Our mission is so much
bigger than that in the spiritual realm. I'm praying that God gives us confidence
because he's already given us all we need to make a difference in the ways that
really matter... and that we would do our very best on those tests... but not
let them give us a grasshopper complex.
Confident in this,
Miranda
(Yes, that's a praying mantis, not a grasshopper, but close enough.)
Girl, you hit the nail on the head! I teach 3rd grade. The grade where they're stuck in the middle...too little to be big, but too big to be little. And of course, that's when testing begins and so does the anxiety. I see it every year, not only intensify in myself, but I see fear in those little faces. It will break a teacher's heart. I, too, am praying to look beyond testing and remember the bigger picture. We only are gifted with these students for a short time. My mission is to show God's love and mercy. Prayers to you my fellow colleague. May God give us all the peace and wisdom we need to push forward.
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