Summer Sabbath

The paradox:  As much as I love school and my students, I can hardly wait for summer. It's just a couple of exams and some boxes of packed up stuff away, and I can practically taste the watermelon!

Fifteen students sit in my classroom, poring over pages of an test, bubbling in answers and writing paragraphs to answer one last essay question. In less than an hour, they will complete this course and go rest their brains for 80 days or so.

As will I.

It isn't that I am eager to see them go. They have brought joy and meaning to my days. Truthfully, I will miss them.

But now is the time for balance, for my own renewal.  Time to read books for fun instead of freshman essays and The Scarlet Letter. Time to clean my house instead of cleaning out my email. Time to take long walks instead of running to the bathroom between 5th and 6th periods. Time to write letters and birthday cards and maybe even Christmas cards instead of writing lesson plans and tests and comments on papers.  Time to cook meals instead of throwing sandwiches into bags. Time to be still and know that God is God.

I need this period of rejuvenation. This Summer Sabbath is what makes the rest of the year possible. By the middle of July, I will desperately desire to return, will be making mental lesson plans, will come re-decorate my room, will buy school supplies with the joyful abandon of an expectant grandmother, will try (unsuccessfully) to learn the names of students before they enter the room in August.

In the meantime, my prayer today, exam day, goes like this:

Dear Father, 
     In these final moments I have with my students, give them peace. Help them to remember answers and to understand concepts and to think clearly and to pace themselves as they take this test. 
     As we leave for the summer, give us opportunities to serve those in need, to fellowship with your family, to be still and know that you are God. Give us wisdom and courage to pass the summer's tests. Draw us all closer to You, resting in the grace that Christ makes possible. 
    Through Him and by His name, I beseech you,
    Let it be so ...  Amen