Tool of inspiration

Hi! I decided that I would give blogging a try. I am currently about to embark on my last week of my very last semester of classes for my degree in education. It has been a LONG journey! I started college in 2003 and am finally graduating in 2012. God has allowed me to overcome quite a few obstacles, endure trials, and receive blessings beyond measure to get to this point. Over the past 9 years I have had 7 major brain surgeries, had life threatening staff twice, gotten married, moved away from my home, and had two beautiful but challenging children. As I look back at my journey I realize that my life story is what makes me who I am. I serve an awesome God and He is shaping me for His service and glory. This is part of the reason I arrived at the decision to become an educator. Public education is a mission field. While I do not have a heart or a call for international missions, my husband and I feel we are called to local missions. This is one of the things that brought us to Ripley and continues to hold us here. God has a plan for us and for this area. Over the past 10 weeks I have had the privilege of file working with some of the best teachers. I have learned so much and feel privileged to call them colleagues and friends! I have also learned that to be a teacher means to experience great joy and great heartbreak, much like being a parent. I have come to love the students I have had for the past few months and I feel both a pride when they succeed and heartbreak when they fail. For the past 2 years I have heard more than anything else the best teachers are reflective ones, so this is what this is; a way to reflect and express my heart. I truly love teaching, for all it's heartbreak and it's triumphs, it is what I am called to do. Being a teacher is both a passion and a calling and I have both! I look forward to many more joys and depend on God to get me through the many heartbreaks that come with this job. "I can be an instrument of torture or tool of inspiration." God please make me a tool of inspiration to all those I come in contact with. Romans 12:1-2