What I did not see....

"In every situation God is doing a thousand things that we cannot see and do not know."-John Piper- About two weeks ago I worked for a week at a different associated school with Common Hope here in Antigua. I am usually in San Miguel Escobar but for this one week I worked in Santa Catarina Bobadilla. I was invited to be at this school for a week because there was a group of students from Juliard doing workshops with the kids and they needed someone to interpret. So this meant that I did not show up for an entire week at the homework center I have been ahead of since February in San Miguel. This also meant I did not get to see my crazy, cute 1st graders for an entire week and usually I see them at least once a day for an hour. I absolutely loved my week at this other school and actually did not think I had missed San Miguel an awful lot until I returned to work last week.... I was quickly making my way up the hill by my elementary school I work at. I was sweating and breathing rapidly....it has been blazing hot here during the day. I had just reached the school around noon and the first shift of kids were leaving the school so the kids were out and parents were waiting for them by the big tree outside the school. I was headed to the homework center, greeting people on the way, when one of the moms of my first graders saw me and came to chat. She goes, "My son will be so happy you are back. He did not want to go to the homework center at all last week because Seño Julianne was not there." I quickly laughed and thanked her and headed on my way all the way thinking.....really? The kids missed me? Or at least one did...haha. I am not even sure I missed them that much really. oops. Lol. (I probably haven't let many of you in on a little secret I learned about myself this year....I am honestly not a little kids type of person. They are cute and all but I am not a natural to work with them. They quickly frustrate me and maybe even slightly get on my nerves. Acknowledging this worries me a bit because I really still do desire to be a mom someday...lol.) Basically, I really didn't think I had been making much of an impact on these kids....because well they were costing me lots of patience and feelings of love in me don't just naturally flow for them because they are always getting into something....hahahaha. However, this one comment from this mother was encouraging to me. I am reminded that even though I might quickly become stressed with kids and forget to enjoy them, everyday is still an opportunity and a choice to LOVE them. In the end, LOVE is what never ever fails and LOVE is a choice, not a feeling. I didn't think I had been showing much love to these kids...but maybe just maybe in the thousand things I do not see and do not know....God has graciously allowed me to be his instrument in the life of a child here in Guatemala. I am thankful for the little glimpses of encouragement He gives.