Today I meet a new staff of teachers as I begin to work with this new school for the year. I have met a couple of times with the principal and today is the staffs’ first day back. I won’t stay long for the purpose is for them to know who I am and remove as much of the stigma as possible as I begin next week coming to their classrooms. The work with them is to prevent them from falling into an under-performing school. This year is their last year to improve their student learning before the problem is identified as severe. The superintendent and principal have asked for this help ahead of time which is good. Sometimes one walks into these situations and finds a good deal of resentment and fear. However, my role, even if these characteristics exist, is to move forward with help and let them know I’m nothing more than a helpmate for them.

When I was younger a lot of what I felt nudged to do by God’s Holy Spirit was fear invoking and many times I’d just not do this fear. Having learned and experienced the truth of God’s nudges–He never nudges without giving the strength and wisdom to follow through–I’ve attempted to apply this to the work God has me doing. I never come with an ax and hammer and neither does God when He is leading us.

My scripture reading this morning was Mark 4. In it Christ is sharing the parable of the farmer sowing seeds. Today I will be sowing seeds which I pray fall on fertile ground so the crop is abundant as we grow the seed throughout the year.