1397) I can distinctly remember the very first faculty meeting I attended 37 years ago. It was held in the high school library and I remember sitting there with great excitement. After so many years of dreaming and studying to become a teacher, I was one!

The principal, Mr. Kluttz, opened the meeting with these words, “If you have done your job well, at the end of each day, you will feel you’ve plowed the back 40.” I didn’t really understand why teaching kids would be so grueling, but it didn’t take too many days in my classroom to find out.

Teaching is often like being a professional juggler. You’ve got some many balls in the air and you have to keep them going all at once. You’ve got your lessons to teach and differentiation for the variety of learning abilities your students have. You’ve got to watch for comprehension, behavior and questions. You have duties and students in crisis. You have conflict brewing among the students you need to stay on top of and state testing to prepare for. You’ve got messages from parents to answer and piles and piles of work to grade. Then, in the evening, you plan for the next day and you do these things again. Whew!  

At the end of my school day, I often ask myself if I can state what Paul does in 2 Timothy 4:7. Here he says, “I have fought the good fight and finished the race and remained faithful.” Asking myself if I have fought, finished and been faithful is a simple question to answer. Deep inside, I know if I have done these things.

I don’t think you have to feel you’ve plowed the back 40 in order to fulfill the goal Paul gives us here, but whatever God has given us to do, we must always do our best.