Twenty-nine precious little faces with hands folded on top of their desks sat waiting for me. Hair was combed. Shirts were tucked in. New shoes weren’t even scuffed yet.
They were waiting for me, a new teacher, to begin teaching them. After years of dreaming that I’d be a teacher, after 4 years of preparing to be a teacher, armed with an Elementary Education degree from the University of Wisconsin that said I was a teacher, I was frozen with fear.

Did twenty-nine little children see me take a deep breath? Did they notice that my eyes closed? Did they realize that I was saying a prayer?

“Heavenly Father, be with me on this first day of teaching.”
My first lesson.

The lesson that would be repeated over and over throughout my life . . .
When I pray, HE listens. HE guides me.

The first day of teaching.
The first day of marriage.
The first day of being a mother.
The first day of starting a new job.
The first day of retirement.
The first day of moving to a new state.
The first day of the rest of my life.
I’ve learned to always start with a prayer . . .

“I will instruct you and teach you on the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” – Psalm 32:8 NIV

Patti