Exciting news at the end! Read all the way through for more FMF retreat news!
And so – we write for five minutes, our words tumbling out – no editing, no polishing – just flat out on a one word prompt! We gather all our beautiful thoughts here in our Five Minute Friday community and then love on each other as only we can do! Click here to learn all about it.
Home is where the Five Minute Friday community gathers so please join us at Kate Motaung’s for our Friday fun!
RELIEF
GO…
39 more days!
Many more tests for the students to complete, papers to grade, report cards to complete and a classroom to pack up…
But really??? 39 more days!
A career coming to an end, a lifetime of memories to remember and reflect upon, a group of students to love one more time for 39 more days.
Thirty years of teaching will come to an end on June 4, but a passion that began as a kindergartner admiring her own teacher many years ago will live on in my heart. An ending to a career but a beginning to a sequel of impossible possibilities.
Relief will come in the form of letting go of federal policies, standardized tests and mandates that are hurting rather than building up children to become our future. Relief will come when all of the endless paperwork is completed. But relief will be short-lived as I say good-bye to 30 years of students who stole my heart with their laughter, smiles, curiosity, struggles, and love. Every minute of teaching has been a gift that God saw fit to bless me with all these years. His gift to me was a tiny seed that began to sprout as that kindergartener who knew that one day she would be a teacher.
[Tweet “When God blesses you with a gift, let it go, give it wings to fly!”]
When God blesses you with a gift, let it go, give it wings to fly. The blessings are a hundredfold when you realize that 30 years have passed and what seemed like a small blip of time became a beautiful career that wrapped passion and work into one amazing embrace.
A gift opens the way
and ushers the giver into the presence of the great. Proverbs 18:16
Praying we all use our gifts to honor God today! As you reflect upon the beautiful blessings you receive, you will feel a relief from the worldly burdens but an awakening of the beauty created in the sharing of the gift with others.
STOP
Blessings,
Mary
#FMFRETREAT NEWS
And now for a reminder and some fun news!
Registration opens next Thursday evening, April 16 at 9:00 PM EST. Woo hoo! Remember there are only 25 spaces available and it is first come, first serve! Click here to preview the registration form!
We are so pleased to announce ViBella Jewelry as one of our retreat sponsors. Click on the logo below to learn more about this beautiful organization with a heart for providing education, employment and opportunity for artisans in Haiti, Mexico and the United States.
Also linking up with:
Oh my word! I can’t believe it is 39 more days…well 37 now since I’m reading on Sunday! That is so exciting and I know it will be sad for you too. But the same God who called you to it will seen you through the end too. We are going to have to do a retirement dance in the FMF Retreat this summer!! Love you!!
Actually it is teaching days so the weekends don’t count! Thank you for the reassuring words that God will see me through the next part of my life too. My head knows that but my heart is still catching up.
Can’t wait for the retirement dance! I already promised my students a dance party on the last day of school! 🙂 Love you!
What beautiful memories you will go forward into your next season, and I can only imagine how many lives you have touched in your 30 years as a teacher. What started from a became a passion for you as a result of loving your teacher may be what leads many young ones to pursue teaching because of all the ways you inspired and loved them.
You have such a beautiful heart, friend.
Much love.
xoxo
I love how God blesses us with gifts and even more how wonderful it is when it aligns with our calling in life. 30 years is amazing enough but to know that I was able to love and teach so many kids is even better. I am praying that these last few days are completed to the best of my ability and that as I look to the future God continues to lead me and show me His plan for my life. Much love to you friend!
A new season is coming. I connected with your feelings since I retired from nursing last July. It was a relief to leave the hospital with all the continual computer upgrades and expanding protocols. Yet I was leaving a profession that has been a rich part of my life. But here is the good news. God has filled my time with service to my church, time with grandchildren and thoughts about new endeavors.
May the next 39 days be a delight–and then blessings on this new season!
Thank you for the encouragement that God will show up in retirement and fill my time with His plan and His goodness. I am not worried about not having enough to do but I am feeling bittersweet about retirement right now. I know God has laid this out and now I just need to exhale, hang on and enjoy! Have a blessed week Carol!
What a blessing I know you have been to each of those children. I also believe that just because your time in the classroom will come to an end your time of teaching has not. God did give you that gift and you will continue to use it for His Glory.
I believe that the gift of being a teacher is for a lifetime so your words ring true when you predict I will continue to use it for God’s glory. It has already been a beautiful blessing. Hoping your weekend is blessed with God’s goodness.
Not a career – a ministry! How blessed you are and those under your tutelage these past 30 years! Hoping to meet you at the FMF Retreat!
Thank you for this encouragement. Teaching is a ministry and one that I have been blessed with for 30 years. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone by.
I would love to meet you at the FMF Retreat. Hoping that works out. Have a blessed weekend!
Sure sounds like you’re finishing well, Mary. What a legacy you leave in the lives of hundreds of children. Fortunately, you have been penning your thoughts about this investment of your life …
A book in the making, perhaps?
;-}
May a weekend of rest be your delight, friend …
Never really thought about a book about teaching experiences but be looking for a letter I will write to the teachers I am leaving behind. Also pray as I ask God to give me the words to encourage them in their journeys. I have so many different snippets that I write about that nothing has jumped out at me that this should all go together into one book. Thank you for being here and for giving me food for thought. Hugs and happy weekend!
WoW! You will be greatly missed Mary. Thank God for the privilege you had all these years to bless those little hearts.
May God help you and encourage you to do more for His Glory.
Many Blessings
I do thank God for the privilege of touching so many lives. I also realize that when God gave me the gift of teaching I was gifted with the chance to share my passion with children in my daily life. It has been a beautiful progression of wrapping my passion with my job. I appreciate you and your sweet words. Blessings!
I can tell this is a very bittersweet time for you. Saying goodbye, yet saying hello to something entirely new. But the amazing thing about being a teacher is that the lessons you have instilled in these kids will continue to teach them for many, many years. I look back at a few of my own teachers who nurtured and honed my writing, before I even knew I liked or wanted to write. And I’m still blessed by their impact in my own life. Twenty, thirty, forty years from now, your students will still be thinking the same! 🙂
Your words are just what I needed Jen! So glad we are FMF sisters across the miles and soon to be in person. You have such good insight because you are also a teacher and I have read your words and seen your pictures which tell of someone engaging the minds of many young people. Keep it up! You too will have some wonderful stories and memories in the years ahead that could be parallel to mine. Have a blessed weekend and hopefully spring is in bloom in Iowa. It is finally popping out here in Ohio!
Mary, those kids are so blessed to have you as their teacher. It is amazing how God uses our gifts isn’t it? Blessings in your retirement. Visiting from the link-up where we are neighbors today.
So glad you stopped by here Tara! Don’t you love that one word “relief” can provide many words? I love how God blesses us with unique gifts. I love even more seeing how these gifts unfold in each person. Have a blessed weekend.
That is so wonderful! I know it will be hard leaving those precious kids. I just always remember, that with God, the best is ALWAYS yet to come. He has great things in store for you! I’m sure there are some surprises waiting just around the corner. 🙂 Blessings! Your FMF friend, Tasha
Thank you for these sweet words Tasha! I know God has surprises in store and He is just biding His time for me to finish this chapter and begin anew in Him. I sure love hanging out with you at #fmfparty. Have a blessed weekend.
What a beautiful post my fmf friend! Oh my it was absolutely wonderful!! I must say, although I don’t know you personally, reading your words I can tell you, your the kind of teacher I want for my children. I pray teachers like you are in my childrens’ direct path during their education. God bless you!!
Thank you Shannon for encouraging and lifting me up with your words when you stop by. I am blessed that a community that has flourished online has blessed my life. I pray that you do interact with teachers who love big and teach well. Blessings!
((( Hugs ))), Mary – enjoy every moment, as I know you will, of these next 39 days.
Soak in all that love for it will stay warm within you forever!
Lynn 🙂
Great advice Lynn from someone who knows exactly what I am feeling right now. I feel it all snuck up on me but maybe I was in denial up until now. Thank you for the new friendship and encouragement with your words. Blessings!
Thirty years! That is amazing, Mary! I can only imagine the GIFT that YOU have been to your students, their parents, and your fellow staff members! What an impact you’ve had across three decades .. praise God! May He grant you a smooth transition through these next 39 days and for three decades yet to come! 🙂 Grateful for your involvement here in the FMF community, and for your support with the retreat! Blessings on your last few weeks of teaching!
Thank you for words that I needed to hear as I travel to the end of the school year with the hope that I finish well. It is so bittersweet but when I remember that God guided those thirty years, I can look ahead to the next 30 with eager anticipation.
I love the FMF community and always think how blessed I am to join hands with so many who love to write as I do. I appreciate you and your open home each week and look forward to that actual face to face meeting in August. Blessings!