Heavenly Father's Projects

The last two weeks have been so busy - many days I have had almost no time to myself, with constant demands or commitments to my family, my calling, my students, the literacy coaching work I do at the high school and the two middle schools, and other commitments such as the work I occasionally do with the Oregon Dept of Education.

There were several big, one-time events that I had a major responsibility with in the last two weeks--coordinating the logistics for retesting nearly 200 juniors and seniors who haven't passed their state tests yet, preparing & presenting a training session for teachers at Oregon City High School, presenting another two days of training for more teachers at ODE, attending cub scout leader training (not that I needed to attend, but to encourage my new assistant den leader to go).

One morning last week I was saying my morning prayers before leaving for work, and I was going down this long list of activities for the day that I wanted Heavenly Father to please help me with, when it dawned on me--everything I was praying for was a project that I was working on. They were all worthy things to do, but it occurred to me to wonder what projects He had in mind for me that day.

At the end of the day, again praying, I asked in my prayer if I had accomplished any of Heavenly Father's projects for the day. I was forced to admit to myself that I didn't think anything I had done during the day qualified--just busy, busy, busy the whole day. But then I recalled sitting for a few extra minutes to listen to one of my teaching colleagues tell me about her success in (finally) connecting with a difficult class, and I also recalled spending a few minutes in the evening while Maleena and I talked about her day at school (Clackamas Community College).

That was all--just listening. That was what God wanted me to do that day.