the Month of May

Something about the month of May sends me into a fury of nostalgia.  I love this time of the year.  Besides it being my birthday month, which by the way-loses its excitement more and more every year, it’s such a great month.  Warmth finally comes… the days last longer… school ends… the Kentucky derby is raced… graduations are held… and all of the vacation talk is thrown around anywhere from cruises, trips to Hawaii, or enduring the extreme heat of Disney World.

I love it because there is Joy present in everything.  Although we are always preached at to not let our joy be based on circumstances, sometimes it’s just hard.  Yes, it’s hard to find joy in the dead of winter, stuck in a snow storm, when it gets dark at 5 p.m.  And not to mention all the heavy clothes you have to wear and 10 extra pounds you gain.  But It seems God gives us joy in the Spring and Summer without having to look too hard for it. 

My first class I ever taught (in Nashville) graduates(d) this year.  I have a t-shirt with all of their names on it and it says “Class of 2012”.  I remember that feeling of terror with those kids and being petrified because it was my first teaching job, and also thinking that the year 2012 was so far away.  They were smart, awkward, full of life little 6^th graders and I was supposed to help nudge them into the beast called “middle school”. 

Maybe it’s understanding now that they have grown up and become young adults that reveal such joy to me right now.  Kids will survive.  They will make it.  They will thrive.  They will screw up and they will let you down but most of them carry on and it’s nice to know I had a very, very tiny hand in that.  I may not find joy in circumstances, but I do find joy in seeing His will fulfilled in all shapes and sizes.