Withhold not your hand...

As I was spending a few minutes Sunday afternoon breathing and reading from my through the Bible in a year, something really leapt out at me. I love that about Scripture—God is constantly making something new! After my first (extremely!) buys week of term, I needed to be reminded of this truth, and so I’ll pass it on to you. King Solomon wrote,

In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” Ecclesiastes 11:6

So often I arrive at the end of my very long days tired, disheveled, sweaty, and discouraged. Did I do enough today? Did I work hard enough and catch enough of the kids who need help with their math? Did I model excellence enough? Was I kind enough? Did I remember to stop and see the people inside my students enough? Did I mark enough papers? Was I enough?

And the answer is, of course not! Because I am a sinner saved by the grace of God, and while I am now absolutely enough in God’s eyes, there is no way flawed, work in progress me could ever be everything everyone around me wants or expects—especially myself! So, after a crazy week of challenges in the classroom, a sore ankle, filling in for co-workers, students who were not as mature or as focused as I had hoped, to sit in the quiet of my living room and have the Lord remind me that all that matters is that today I went out and I tried to live for Him, was powerful. I can never know what the result will be of the seeds I sow day by day; so, until He calls me home, I’m going to keep sowing and work on expecting God to do something good with it. Because how can I know what will prosper eternally?

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