I got a new student today.

Oh the chaos that one little sentence contains.

Any teacher who's ever had a new student walk unexpectedly into their classroom knows the panic. I need to find a desk. I need to make a label for their cubby. I need books. I need to add a worksheet to each pile in the stack of photocopied worksheets for the week. I need to fill another bin with math manipulatives. I need to find a pencil, eraser, and a box of crayons. I need to find another whiteboard, marker, and eraser. I need to contact tech to get them the required user names and passwords and get them assigned to my learning management system… The rest of the day was a scramble to get caught up again while teaching the new student the routines of our COVID classroom.

After school, my grade-level teachers gathered for a planning session, where we discussed next week while eating celebratory snacks (because three teachers on the team celebrate birthdays this week, and because we successfully made it through another day).

Then I headed home, stopping at Walmart to pick up some supplies for tomorrow's science experiment. (Oh yeah – I need another a tray.)

All in all, it wasn't so bad. Especially when I admit that I was fighting tears on the way in to work this morning, thinking that there was no way I could keep going at this pace. The planning and preparing, recording and posting, writing and reading, zooming and grading – hybrid teaching is so much more than twice the work! So on the way in this morning, fighting tears, I had a long chat with Abba about it.

As usual, He had a different way of looking at things.

He pointed out that once again, I've been trying to muddle through this all in my own strength. And I don't have nearly enough. I don't have enough time, either. I've been working through the weekdays, weeknights, and weekends and still not getting everything done. I can't do it all. And I'm not supposed to be trying to.

My Abba will equip me to do what He's asked me to do. He'll give me the strength –emotional and physical – to complete the task that He sets before me. When I'm feeling most overwhelmed by all of the things I need to get done – that's when it's most important for me to stop doing, and to rest in His presence, hide in His word, and hang out quietly intently seeking His will.

So on the way in to work this morning, I gave Him my job. My time. My stress and my worries. My fears and my wishes. My plans and my class.

And He gave me a new student.

Sometimes I question His plan. And that's ok. He works in mysterious ways that I will probably never understand. And I don't need to. I just need to trust. And to keep going to Him for strength and hope.

He's got this. He's got me.

I can still say with sure confidence: Life is good. Heaven is better. God is in control.

And I've got a leftover cupcake.