Devotion Week 1-Creation

Read Genesis 1

Creation is such an amazing story. It signals beginnings. The beginning of everything. It is like the beginning of school, when all the school supplies and clothes smell new. When the tennis shoes are still white or the lights still light up. The same is true for creation. Everything was new. Nothing had ever been seen before. The sun, the moon, the stars! Imagine seeing stars for the first time. Or the first babbling brook. Eating the first apple, laying on the soft grass, looking up at the trees swaying in the wind.

As teachers we can see our children in the same way. Exciting and new, pretend like you have never met them before and look at each child as a creation of God, can you see them in a different light? Can you forget the naughtiness or the defiant for a moment and just love on them? Can you tune out the crying or screaming and just hear laughter and see joy.

God calls us to do that, He expects us to treat His children like He treats us, with love, compassion, and never-ending patience. His expectation is that we will cherish the children He has entrusted us with. Sharing His love with them at all times and in any way we can.

So for this week, observe and note not the bad, but something amazing about each of your students.    

See them as God sees them.

This weekend and throughout this upcoming week take time to pray about seeing your kids in this way.  To see these children not as hard or difficult but in a new way. Take some time to really try to have a new outlook on each kid both the "difficult" ones and "less difficult" ones. Pray about the situations that you have encountered so far and the ones that are still to come. And pray for the families that are connected to you through your children.

In the past we have had children in certain classes that the teachers had a hard time with, then the teacher was told to pray about the particular child. After taking time to really pray and look into how she could help the child and not how the child could change, she ended up finding the situation to change for the better. Please take this to heart and really look at each child and see them for who they are and how God sees them.