So why is starting each week so grueling? If I love my job so much, why are Mondays so rough and why is the prospect of a new week sometimes daunting instead of inviting?
I have to "train" myself to mentally and spiritually prepare for a new week. After all, it's up to me how productive I am, how much gets done, how I decide to use my spare time and how the environment of my classroom is, et cetera. I thrive on routines {always have, and this is also how I structure my class}, and am sometimes overwhelmed when I think of all the tasks I need to accomplish in a 5 day work week. And sometimes I find myself counting down to the weekend before the work week even starts. And then I think, why am I wishing away this precious time? Why am I mentally skipping over Monday-Friday just to be excited for the weekend? Someday I might look back on the these years and realize I, in a sense, forgot to "live" during the week.
And that thought is sobering. Here I am, wishing for years to come when I'm forgetting to live in the years presently. Time and life is so precious, and the day-to-day makes it easy to forget.
There are a number of verses in scripture that address the importance of work. Yes, work is important. But besides the fact that work provides a means of shelter, food, savings, preparedness, etc, work is important in a much more complex level. God designed us to work. We were not meant to be idle, purposeless, useless. He also didn't name work by any other name; work lives up to it's meaning. It requires ethic, hands, effort, mental and physical stimulation. It can be exhaustive and frustrating. It can be repetitive and a grind. But it's supposed to be purposeful, and all work is considered God's work.
I think my favorite verse in accordance to work is:
I have to "train" myself to mentally and spiritually prepare for a new week. After all, it's up to me how productive I am, how much gets done, how I decide to use my spare time and how the environment of my classroom is, et cetera. I thrive on routines {always have, and this is also how I structure my class}, and am sometimes overwhelmed when I think of all the tasks I need to accomplish in a 5 day work week. And sometimes I find myself counting down to the weekend before the work week even starts. And then I think, why am I wishing away this precious time? Why am I mentally skipping over Monday-Friday just to be excited for the weekend? Someday I might look back on the these years and realize I, in a sense, forgot to "live" during the week.
And that thought is sobering. Here I am, wishing for years to come when I'm forgetting to live in the years presently. Time and life is so precious, and the day-to-day makes it easy to forget.
There are a number of verses in scripture that address the importance of work. Yes, work is important. But besides the fact that work provides a means of shelter, food, savings, preparedness, etc, work is important in a much more complex level. God designed us to work. We were not meant to be idle, purposeless, useless. He also didn't name work by any other name; work lives up to it's meaning. It requires ethic, hands, effort, mental and physical stimulation. It can be exhaustive and frustrating. It can be repetitive and a grind. But it's supposed to be purposeful, and all work is considered God's work.
I think my favorite verse in accordance to work is:
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalms 138:8
My Classroom Window
Do not forsake the work of your hands. Do not forsake the workplace where God has you. Do not forsake the opportunities He has given you. Do not forsake the beautiful work we create with our hands. The minds we shape and the connections we make, the relationships we build, and for me, the children who I have the privilege of interacting with on a daily basis. God made my hands to work; why dread the work week when I could instead be rejoicing and embracing it?
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