Whenever I work on a blog post I pray that God could use it to help and encourage someone with something they need.  I’m placing this one in the Teacher category but also General and Christian Living because the idea of conversing with God is relevant for every Christian.

I wrote this during my first year of teaching full time. I taught morning and afternoon kindergarten in a low-income school with many families who did not speak English. It was challenging and I needed help!

From the journal . . . . December 1998

 Lord, as I prayed this morning, I asked You to fill and saturate me with Yourself.  I have a sense of needing less me and more You.  All the work I’m putting in school is wasted unless You are in it.  I desperately need more of You. 

Jesus, I keep getting ideas while I’m praying.  They don’t seem spiritual but practical.  I hope they aren’t distractions, but I believe You give them to me.  You are mighty to change and influence me.

And God Said to Me:

You have asked Me to change you so that I can live in you.

Col 1:26-27 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
1 John 3:24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

There is a supernatural changing that the Lord does when we surrender to Him. How else could a Holy God live in us? But He does and then the transformations begin. We know this because He says it in the Bible.

I am, and I’m giving you ideas to help.  Not to put you in bondage but suggestions to try.  Be at ease. 

Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Give the students more modeling.    That will help them and save you time.  Repetition is very important for those who struggle.  After you have modeled several times then leave them alone.  It will pay off.  Don’t give up on Gordan and Drew.

~ Gordon and Drew (not their real names) came in knowing no English at all and had spent the first five years of their lives without hearing anything but their native language.  Little Drew was very happy and receptive from the get-go but also somewhat hyper.  Gordan was scared to death and didn’t want to be away from mama!  Both boys adapted to their new lives and were able to enjoy school! I was grateful for a very good ESL teacher who happened to be in our before school prayer group. Several years Iater I was able to see Gordon again when his younger cousin was in my class!  It was a happy reunion for both of us!

As for the ideas the Lord gave me, I took them seriously.  It wasn’t rocket science but they kept me on course for these little ones that He loved so much.  I don’t always know when it’s God’s idea or my own, but if an idea helps, I assume it’s Him because that’s what He does! Holy Spirit has been referred to as ‘The Helper‘

John 14:16-20  I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you