One more week to go

Five more days with my 3rd graders

Memory books and field day interspersed with the cleaning and storing of this year’s materials will mark the week and take us home

All the above mark the passage of time and the end to a year well-lived or does it?

This year has been a roller coaster of emotions, a wave of changes and a downpour of challenges and in the midst of it, all I have wanted is for it to end – right now!

This past week as I opened my email, I saw my daily devotion from Christine Caine and proceeded to read it to be able to check it off my to do list. And then it happened – the words were not just written to be encouraging but were God’s way of sternly telling me I needed an attitude adjustment. Christine spoke of “finishing well” in all areas of your life and at that moment I knew that meant me! This school year with its ups and downs was meant to end on an upswing. My 3rd graders, who inside are anxious and uncertain because summer is coming and the security and routine of school will not be part of their day, deserve to feel loved, safe and strengthened by an ending worth coming to school for! The challenge is mine to grab and mine to secure so my students may “finish well”. As I tell my students when completing a task, a book, a test or written work – “finish strong”! I realize these words are spoken for me just as much as it is for them. The challenge for all of us is to finish strong – stay the course – honor God in all you do. Christine Caine – an author,  a speaker and an activist working to end human trafficking – wrote the following words in her “first things first” devotional that ended up in my email box last week:

“When we come to a place of transition before our next season, it can be easy to forget that the current season still needs to be finished before moving into the next one. How we finish one thing directly impacts the way we enter into a new thing!” She continues to share three ways to finish your season well.

1. Don’t devalue the season you’re in

2. Don’t drop the ball – in other words don’t forget your current responsibilities

3. Don’t burn your bridges

After reading and re-reading these powerful words, I knew I was being challenged to not only remember these words, but let them sink into a place of recognition and action within me.

At the end of the day or season or phase of life, we should seek grace from God to finish well and transition to the next step knowing that we ended well. The move into the next season combines the best and all we learned from the season before to continue to build toward finishing well!

At the end of it all, I want to hear that I finished well and lived a life that honored God. Let’s all challenge ourselves and live these words in all we do!

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

Blessings,

Mary

***To learn more about Christine Caine, her campaign to end human trafficking or to sign up for her daily devotions, click here.

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