Baptism of fire

Well, that's what I was thinking this afternoon. Not by chance that another teacher said exactly the same thing to me later in the day. Got a big decision to make in the next few days; a tough one that will affect me much in the next few years. 

Hard to imagine a year ago I was preparing for practicum. Harder to imagine it was just one and a half years ago when I started my NIE training and wrote that post about rediscovering the call. Sometimes its good to read old posts, to remind yourself of your purpose in this life. 

"It's a different burden", that's what one of the Senior Teachers at TMS told those first few days. He was referring to producing all the As. But yes, reading that old post was a good reminder that it is a different burden. 

The point of difference. That was my post just as I left practicum. I wrote, "I will be praying that I will remember why I do this and that I will never lose that call to be the difference". Yeah, that's what I need to be praying about. 

I've only ever been for one AnnTIC. That was a traumatic event for me. It was the wilderness experience. I wrote that in my practicum journal, coming out from the wilderness and (literally) to the mountain top. Reading that was a good reminder as well. 

It's been a baptism of fire the past few days. There is an instinctive need in me to be different, yet there is a need to balance and temper that with tough love. Its a struggle (on both sides of the classroom) that I wish for no one. 

So Lord, open my eyes that I may see the work of Your hands.