End of the Year!

I don't know about you, but I am feeling a tad desperate for the school year to be done. I want to simply say "peace out" and move on into the slow months of summer most days. Last night we gathered together with some sweet girls for our neighborhood bible study and all of us looked a bit dazed and confused as we tried to discuss heavy topics in our lives, while being completely done with the school year.

I'm sure teachers are feeling the same way, if not even more so. I totally missed teacher appreciation week last week, I missed bike to school Wednesday and I missed "mandarins for mom." {I was in my pajamas when we pulled up, Brady begged me to get out, but y'all - I didn't even shoes on!} I'm a winner, for sure. Even in preschool for our sweet Charlotte we have splash day and train day and a pizza party. Totally cramming everything in for one last fun-ish hurrah. I love Jen Hatmaker's post last year about the end of the school.

Even with all of these emotions and the pure weariness that the end of year chaos seems to bring, I feel that the Lord has something for us in these last few weeks. Somehow, there's still a lesson to be learned, a trial to be faced or perhaps a relationship that needs to be cultivated. I found myself this morning pleading with the Lord that He might open my eyes to His presence throughout these last days of first grade. That I wouldn't be blinded by activity and the seeming mayhem, or longing for days without a schedule and foodie fiction books by the pool, but that I would be aware of His divine assignment, even in the weeks where I feel like I might be in give up mode. Whether His assignment is to be an encourager or simply to just be fully engaged, I pray He would give me endurance to not coast but to be active in my faith and friendships throughout the end of this season.

In the Old Testament, Elijah was on mission from God and continued on, even in his last days until God was done and instantly took him up to heaven. {2 Kings 2:11} When Elijah was taken, he was found encouraging and teaching Elisha about the Kingdom of God and staying with him - even until the end.

I encourage you today, my friends, to hang in until the end with me. Hang in 100% until the last day of this school year. It might seem silly to compare the end of Elijah's life with the end of our school year, but sweet mommas - can I get an amen when I say that the end of any school year is nothing less than tumultuous? I certainly am not all present - but am going to strive to be all there for my kids, their activities and their teachers. I'm going to give it my all and look for God's hand to be just as powerful in our lives as it was at the beginning of the school year.

So I encourage you, dear sister, to end this school year with a bang! Give it your all, love others with vigor and more energy than you can muster up yourself. Look for ways to be used by Him even while others are winding down! Let's not let the winding down be our excuse to not be on the look out for the Holy Spirit moving in our hearts. We've got this.

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9