My oh my, has time flown by!! Here is a timeline for you.
-In two weeks I wrap up the school year, and will be heading to Minnesota to live with family till I leave in August! I look forward to spending quality time with loved ones.
– I have one month until my training camp in Atlanta with my squad! Here we will be learning about the cultures we will be living amongst, spiritual disciplines and practices for the race, physical demands of long hikes with packs and much more I’m sure!! (future blog to come)
-I have 80 DAYS BEFORE LAUNCH!! WOOOHHH!!
Today I want to talk about my precious first graders. The sad reality has set of only having nine days left with them. Stepping into this school year, I was uncertain how I would adapt from teaching middle school the past few years to six and seven year olds. Although it definitely took some getting used to, my heart was quickly captivated by their constant hugs, smiles and innocence to the world we live in.
God has revealed himself through these kids time and time again. He reminds me of my worth, beauty and being fully seen and loved. It has been evident to me that I was meant to be shown this agape love before I left for the race.
I think we can all learn lessons from children all around us. They ask provoking questions that we have written off from being burned from our broken world. They call out the beauty in us that we don’t see in ourselves. They have the same desire to be fully known and accepted but aren’t able to communicate it, so they act out. Don’t we as adults do the same?
If I got paid for the amount of times at recess I heard, “Ms, Kolander watch me do this”. I may just be fully funded for the World Race, haha. Seemingly enough, we cry out to our Heavenly Father frequently vying for a small taste of his attention. We doubt his ability to notice us, “how could the maker of the universe care deeply about my own personal desires?” What if we started calling out the purest qualities in each other, just as young children do to us? What if we were honest in love when someone is acting from a wounded place? What if we learned to view God from a child’s lens, fully covered from the sin and darkness of this world. Softening our hearts to his everlasting, triumphant sacrifice of dying on the cross, so that you can be fully known and accepted into his arms of grace.
A song we sing often at school with the kids is: “Who You Say I Am” by Hillsong
“I am chosen
Not forsaken
I am who You say I am
You are for me
Not against me
Yes, I am who You say I am
Who the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I’m a child of God
Yes I am”
We are ALL children of God, chosen, not forsaken.
Walk in that truth this week.
