Photo Credit: Eran Becker, via Free Images

I saw a plaque today that made me laugh so hard.  It reminded me of my days in the trenches as a high school English teacher.  It read:

Today I will be happier than a teacher on a snow day.

Teaching adolescents is a beautiful and brutal experience.  It was super fun to start the school year with new school supplies and creative strategies for engaging my minions.  But, right around March, we entered a season of schooling that I liked to call “Hell.”  After Spring Break, the kids grew weary of learning and made me wish I was elsewhere — like on the beach with a good book and a cool glass of iced tea.

The temptation to give up and not put my best foot forward during that last inning of the game was strong.  Rather than corral the restless pupils, some teachers chose to “phone it in” and spent a lot of time popping videos into the DVD player to try to hypnotize their students into silence.

I decided to go down fighting.  I blame Dr. Yarusinsky for this.  My college professor had ingrained in me the importance of making every minute of the classroom experience a valuable one.  He’d told me that if I wasted 5 minutes of classroom time each day, by the end of the year, I would have lost 2 weeks of teaching time.

Not on my watch.

I determined to finish well — even if it killed me.

Holding fast in hard times will require you to swim against the tide of indifference and apathy.  When everyone around you has “checked out,” you must push forward with passion.

I think of Jesus.   He was misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned, and beaten.

My Savior kept His eye on the finish line.

Are you battle weary and losing steam right now?  Look to your Redeemer and remember why you started the race in the first place.

Keep your eyes on Jesus,

who both began and finished this race we’re in.

Study how He did it.

Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—

that exhilarating finish in and with God—

He could put up with anything along the way:

Cross, shame, whatever.

And now He’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith,

go over that story again, item by item,

that long litany of hostility He plowed through.

That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Hebrews 12:3-4, MSG

I’m joining The Nester and friends for #write31days and sharing “Focus on Finishing” with like-minded sisters at Coffee for Your Heart, Tell His Story, Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Essential Fridays, and Thriving Thursday.

To see all of the posts in this series, head on over here.