My throat hurts

but for a good reason. I went to the track meet tonight and cheered myself almost hoarse. I'm so proud of our students and the effort they put forward. One of my girls, Adrienne, competed for the first time. She has wanted to become more involved, but struggled with missing her home country and her friends. Last year was very hard, but God has been getting her through these times and changing her heart to love and accept where He has placed her. Another of my kids, Alex, is stinkin' fast. I had no idea! And it was so encouraging that as he would seem to lag around the last corner, we would all begin cheering and he would speed up - which sounds logical, but is so incredible to see. I asked him later if he could hear me when he was running. With a HUGE smile, he said that, yeah, he knew when I was yelling. What can I say, I'm a loudmouth who has also been trained to project. That's a dangerous combo. . .

So, this evening as I wanted to start blogging again, more as a way to process than anything else, I realized how much more I want God to use my gifts of encouragement for his purposes. I love to encourage, but I forget that it doesn't have to be at school stuff. I need to be digging deep into others' spiritual lives to be able to encourage them when they are downhearted. If I don't know what they are experiencing, I really don't know how best to love them. Praise God that He uses our words and actions without us having to know everything. But He also calls us to be unified in thought and judgment. How can I do that, if I don't know what my brothers and sisters are thinking?

I got a chance this morning to talk to a couple of my students who sometimes have trouble staying awake in class. It was a teacher moment where I could show how much I care about them, but also give them resources to change. I pray they take advantages of the ideas that I presented.