I Can Do Hard Things

This is it- the week before school starts.  After nearly 5 months out of my classroom I am very excited to see my students, be back among my co-workers, and get back to face-to-face instruction.  But I am also facing so many stressful things as well… how do I prepare for in-person instruction as well as remote for one day of the week and part of each afternoon while simultaneously having full-time remote plans for any families who choose that option, and be ready to pivot on a dime if we return to full-time remote learning.  Will there be enough time to prepared them for routines and expectations for full-time remote? How do we juggle the safety precautions, meet academic needs, and give attention to social/emotional needs? How do I juggle this for my own family- the boys have been out of daycare for months, everyone has gotten used to homecooked meals and a constant stream of clean laundry.

 

As I laid down in bed a few nights ago I was crying to (A) about just how stressed I am about it.  After going through my list of worries, I finally said, “It is just all SO HARD.”  There are going to be hard choices, hard tasks, hard situations, hard emotions to navigate- and there are NO good answers to many of those struggles.  While I didn’t quit crying, I did begin praying about how to navigate it all… and in time, God’s gentle voice reminded me, “You can do hard things.”  It stopped me in my tracks.  Yes, all of this is hard, but with God’s help, I CAN do hard things.  As I look back, I realize I have done hard things before, many of them, and I will do hard things again.  So I decided it would be my mantra for the school year (and of course in elementary teacher fashion, I am currently working on a cutesy sign to hang that phrase in my classroom).  I can do hard things.

 

The next day I received an email from our youth minister about the high school class I will be teaching this fall on Sunday evenings.  The book he has selected… Do Hard Things.  I had to smile, yes, God, you knew I would need constant reminders. 

 

The more I have prayed about it and done some studying, I realize it is ok to acknowledge the hard.  Some things are just exactly that- hard.  We can’t always smile and say it is all going to be ok, and not everything can be fixed with a kiss and a band-aid.  But just because something is hard, I do not have to be stopped by it.  I’m sure this school year is going to bring hard choices, hard conversations, and hard work.  It is going to be hard to stay comfortable in a mask, hard to not hug my kiddos, hard to navigate the tricky schedule, hard to keep everyone happy, and hard to balance it with my own family, but I can do hard things. 

 

I decided to test my theory on Tuesday when I announced to the boys we were going to have an all day shopping trip- the kind where Mama needs to go 42 places to get 2-3 things each stop to have my classroom and our house ready for back to school.  The kind of shopping trip that (A) refuses to go on because it way exceeds his limit of stops.  And I was going to do that with a 1 and 4 year-old AND keep (a) and I masked.  I knew it would be hard, almost impossible, to navigate this day in a successful way that didn’t end with at least one of us in tears.  But as I hopped on the interstate headed toward the city with two sleeping boys in the back seat, I just started repeating, “I can do hard things.  I can do hard things.”  Instead of unrealistic hopes, I just faced it straight on… this was going to be a challenge, but I could do it.  And to my shock, we had an absolutely wonderful day, complete with a fun “lunch date.”  Was it perfect- nope.  But it was so incredibly enjoyable. 

 

Ignore my lack of mascara... that is a totally different long story

Instead of being frustrated by the hard, I embraced it, expected it, and took it on as a challenge.  Will I have that same outcome for every hard situation this year- no way.  But by the grace of God, I CAN DO hard things.