Counselor’s Corner Issue 32

Hello specialty-order caterers,

This week on a 4-hour road trip to Great Lakes Adventist Academy, I pulled into a Taco Bell drive-thru for a quickie family dinner pitstop. I rolled down my window, crossed my fingers, and relayed the very-specific orders of my 7- and 10-year old daughters (2 bean burritos, no sauce, onions, or cheese, 1 #3 with no meat, sub beans) to the faceless voice on the other end. After pulling up, paying, and procuring our order, I did something new: I passed the entire fast food bag back to my eldest daughter and asked her to distribute the food.

Realizing what a big job this was, I quietly drove, watching in the rearview mirror to see how the process went. Brynlie, carefully and respectfully pulled out each menu item, deciphered the jargon on the wrappers, and thoughtfully dealt the food to its intended recipient. "No onions goes to Elliott." "Extra sour cream goes to Mommy." "No meat, sub beans goes to me." She calmly handled a spilled soda with minimal reaction and gathered crumbled wrappers so as not to distract my focused driving. She even offered our mealtime prayer with little-girl sincerity, thanking God for His provision of blessing. When she was done, she exclaimed, "Wow! This is a hard job!"

The entire process, although humdrum to most onlookers, struck me in how it relates so much to the hard work you do as educators. Every day, you dole out learning objectives with care, decipher which learning modality will best be received by each student, and respectfully gauge how to deliver your lesson plan so it will be understood. Althewhile, you calmly deal with spills of student meltdowns and crumbles of parent miscommunication along the way so as not to distract others' focus. You do it with prayer and sincerity, thanking God for His provision and blessing.

So, in today's fast-paced, drive-thru, mass approach to education, I want you to know that you are not a faceless order-cube by which to generate students. I see you. Your hard, intentional work does not go unnoticed. I know exactly who is feeding today's youth with spiritual and intellectual food for the life-road ahead. Thank you for your ministry to our students (especially the ones with extra hot sauce). You make them hunger for more.

Your late-night shift coworker,
Mindy