“You’re different this year. Sassier.”
“No, I’m more confident.” “That’s great! What’s helping you be more confident?” “Well I scored my first goal for my club team and I’m doing really well on it in general.” “So your accomplishments are making you confident? That’s good. But what happens if you don’t score another goal for the rest of the season?” “I’ll probably be depressed. Why are you like this anyway? Do you want to be a guidance counselor or something?” Why am I like this? Because I care about you. You were my student last year, you are my little athlete this year, and I take care of my own. Because you wrote me a card at the end of last year telling me the “Top 10 Reasons I’m the Best Teacher Ever”. Reason #1 was that I help you out with your problems. Reason #4 was that I am the best at encouraging you. Reason #10 was that I am caring. Remember that? Now you have expectations of me that I never want to fall short of - because I want you to be able to always look back and see me as someone who fiercely believed in your worth, no matter what. I need to have hope that you believe deep in your heart that your accomplishments are important and surely to be celebrated, but your value comes from someplace far greater than anything you could ever achieve. I’m “like this” because your mom told me that the only reason you’re running this season is because you want to spend more time with me. You know me well enough to know that I am not going to let that time go to waste. So again, I’m “like this” because I care about you. I’m “like this” because I need to have hope that throughout your lifetime when you unavoidably fall short of your own dreams and expectations, you have the courage to pick yourself back up again because you know that you are worth more than soccer, your grades, what others say about you or do to you, and what you say about yourself. And as long as you are within my sphere of influence I will never stop being “like this”.
1 Comment
|
Author4th grade teacher. Writer. Justice-seeker. Encourager. CrossFitter. John 11:40. Archives
July 2017
Categories |