You Can't Make All of the People Happy...

I got fired today. I’m not entirely sure a 6-year old has that kind of authority, but he was pretty convincing. “You are the worst teacher. Don’t EVER come back to this school!” Granted, I did take away his snack and insist he stop pummeling another student, so I wasn’t exactly telling him what he wanted to hear. But isn’t that when most of us get upset? When someone is giving us a harsh truth that we don’t want to admit? How dare she expect me to follow the rules? What gives him the right to tell me what I can and can’t do? Where do they get off judging my parenting?

It had already been a rough day. Out of control behavior from so many students, constant interruptions while I was trying to teach my groups and various issues with other adults that just flat-out hurt my feelings. So when said student called me out on being a meanie (I really was losing my temper, it wasn’t pretty), it stung. Because he was right--in that moment I was NOT a very good teacher. I let my emotions take over and tried to gain control by wielding my authority. Ooooh...that feels good sometimes. “Because I said so” has rolled off my tongue more times than I care to admit.

I haven’t always been so driven by my emotions. I’ve actually been told I think more with my head than with my heart...I like to analyze things. To death, some might say. But lately I find myself overcome by my feelings, for better or for worse. Not sure when this shift happened, but I feel things so much more deeply than I ever have before. And this is an awesome thing...when those feelings are good. For instance, I love my students more deeply and truly see their hearts instead of being so focused on getting a task done. But these deep emotions also open me up to more hurt and disappointment, as people don’t always act in a way that’s loving or affirming toward me (especially when I do something cruel like taking their snack away!).

I have a sign in my bathroom (from a Christine Caine Instagram post) that says: “If someone has the capacity to make or break your day, you’ve given them too much power over you.” I think this is absolute truth. Granted, it’s nice when someone “makes” my day by saying or doing something nice. Words of affirmation is my love language, after all. But I don’t want to rely on that to find my joy. Conversely, I don’t ever want someone’s bad attitude or attempt to fire me affect me so much that it ruins my day! But that’s my choice--how I respond to others’ words or actions is up to me. I find the more I fill myself with God’s truth about me, the less the things others say affect me. Because I know that what He says is truth and, ultimately, the only truth that matters.

So the next time you are fired by your children, spoken to in a less-than-respectful way or just flat-out ignored, remember that the emotions you feel are fleeting and cling to God’s truth. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Oh, and He’ll never fire you.