Lesson Learned

It's late, and I really should be in the bed.  I had a final project due for a class tonight so I was up late completing it.  No, I didn't wait until the last minute to do it, but it was a rather tedious assignment that I have been working on for a couple of weeks, and tonight was my night to wrap it up and turn it in.  I really should have spent more than 2 hours working on it yesterday, because wrapping it up took longer than I thought.  My grade will be less than par for me, but I discovered something very important during this assignment.  Actually, I discovered a lot, but one thing in particular is so worth sharing that I had to write about it tonight.  Here it is.  All of my life I have been blessed with the ability to do well in school.  As long as I have put forth the effort, I have been rewarded with good grades.  Well, I have put forth a lot of effort on the project that I submitted earlier tonight, and I know that my reward for this one will not be a good grade.  I know this because we have a specific grading rubric, and I know that I didn't complete all of the components of it.  Normally, I would be very disappointed with myself for not making an A, but this is one time that I am just proud that I turned something in to the teacher.  Some of my difficulties came from underestimating the scope of the project and some of them came from being a 20th century learner trying to adapt to learning in the 21st century.  I won't bore you with the details of that, but I do want to tell you a little more about what I learned.

I learned that sometimes the final grade isn't always reflective of the effort that was put forth.  I learned that the process of learning was more important for my future success as a student and teacher than the final grade on this project.  As I thought about this project and what I have learned, I was reminded of my spiritual walk and immediately God showed me something.  Hang in there as I try to explain it....this is one time when the words may not be able to work for me.  Sometimes what we see on the outside of people or the outcome of situations is not reflective of their heart for God.  You see, despite my hard work and desire to make a good grade, it just won't happen on this project, but I did have a great learning experience that won't be reflected in my grade.  Sometimes, the outcome in my life or someone else's is not what I would hope or expect.  In fact, if I had to give myself or others a grade based on what I see as the finished product, I would be giving out a lot of F's for failure.  The truth is that only God can see the finished product in the work He has started.  What looks like an F to us may not be a true reflection of the work God is doing in our own or someone else's life.  I wish that I could say that I have never looked at someone's choices and said that I would never do that or how could he/she do that, but the truth is that I have.  Somehow, in this difficult school project, God has reminded me that I shouldn't say such things because what I am seeing on the outside may not be reflective of what is going on underneath.  Sometimes the lessons that I learned on the first time take someone else two or three or four or five or even 20; it doesn't make them any less in God's eyes, and it shouldn't make them any less in mine.  I need to start looking less at the grade and more at the experience.  I need to start looking for more ways to help people instead of deciding that they can't be helped or assuming that they don't want help just because they haven't been able to "make the grade" on their own.  I need to start showing God's "students" the same grace and mercy that He shows me every day.  Now, that is a lesson learned.

Don't forget to vote!

I have had several people tell me that they are not voting.  A few of them have never voted!  A couple of them are my nieces...they weren't sure of who to vote for.....they just didn't understand the importance of voting.  As I was driving to work this morning I thought about the two service men that lost their lives in Afghanistan this past week and the hundreds of thousands more men and women who have given their lives so that we can live in a country with so many freedoms, including the right to vote.  To not take the time to research the candidates and go to the polls and vote is not only irresponsible; it is disrespectful.  Can you imagine how the families of those men and women must feel to learn that millions of Americans don't even exercise one of the liberties that their loved ones died to defend?  Don't fall prey to the cynicism of our times and think that your vote doesn't count.  Every vote counts and everyone needs to vote!  If you are registered, please take time to vote.  God bless you, and God bless America!