Do Over

As a teacher I would love to move through all my lessons at a rapid, consistent pace with students picking up each concept quickly. I would like to stay on schedule, get a steady rhythm going, and not be interrupted til the last day of school. How nice it would be to just flow smoothly through the year without questions, confusion, distractions, or delays. Unfortunately, that would only happen in a perfect, Utopian world....I don't live there. So today, the sixth graders are taking a make-up math test because the highest score yesterday was a D+, and the fifth graders will spend the math class doing corrections because most of them got C's, D's, or F's. In my brain I think, "AAHHH!! Why can't they get this right?! We go over and over and over the concepts and in class they participate and answer everything right. Why is it so different on a math paper?!" I could scream and throw the papers at the students in frustration, but what good would that do? No good, because with me they would probably laugh, knowing I wasn't serious. But really, they need a do-over day, a re-do, another chance. What good am I if my students leave my class having learned nothing? I would rather they master a handful of concepts than vaguely understand a myriad of them. And how many of us always learn a new concept perfectly the first time? I, for one, have made mistakes over and over again in the same areas, but God keeps giving me another chance. And that's life, not just math class. I wonder how often God thinks about me, "We just went over this, Lindsey, why are you not getting it?!" In His grace and mercy, He probably doesn't even think that, but I sure think that about myself! Thank God for the many second chances and do-overs He gives, and think about someone you can give a second chance to today. I'm off to make copies of that math test...