Lonely Island

I've been up since 3:30 this morning and haven't been able to fall back to sleep for 3 hours. I'm really tired and can't even tell if this will be a coherent post or not. My alarm clock is set to go off in 30 minutes and I am already dreading this day. I had a rough afternoon yesterday. I am the volunteer parent coach for a group of students for a certain activity and yesterday was difficult with my group. In fact, I almost decided to pack up my kids and leave.

I was feeling very disrespected by some of the kids. There was flat out disobedience, ignoring me, stonewalling me, and just plain attitude. I gathered the group together and had a talk with them. Nothing changed. I felt like I was alone on a deserted island.

Time to talk to the parents. One parent was not around, one parent appreciated me telling them what was going on, and from the other parent I kept getting excuse after excuse as to why her child is the way she is. I felt like I was alone on a deserted island.

There were some other concerned adults around me. I was able to vent to some of them the facts about what was going on, and I think I successfully did that without gossiping. These adults were very gracious in listening to me without trying to get involved, recognizing that I needed to vent. I felt like I was alone on a deserted island.

One caring adult was able to discuss with me the same issues and concerns she has been having with some of these same students and parents. Now, there were two of us sharing that deserted island.

Here's the kicker to all of this: everybody is a Christian but you wouldn't necessarily have known that yesterday. Sometimes even Christians are just wrong. Even thought the Bible tells us not to judge others, when there are times that you know all of the facts in a situation, sometimes there are people involved who are just wrong.  The Bible even tells us how to handle this. I went to the people involved and taking out as much emotion as I could, I presented the facts to these people and we discussed it. I even had a third party with me. Even so, I felt like I was alone on a deserted island.

Well, now my alarm is going to go off in 10 minutes and I have to get myself ready to go see this group of students and parents for a few hours this morning. I've prayed, and prayed, and prayed all by myself. Nobody offered to pray for me, let alone with me. I feel like I'm alone on a deserted island.

As hard as it is, I need to choose to go to my group with a good attitude. I need to choose to put aside this offense and start today brand new. I need to choose to forgive those who hurt me. I need to choose to do this because God is walking right there beside me helping me. Even though it still may feel like it, I know I'm really not alone on a deserted island.