   
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed the set of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you 'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troubled times of my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why you would leave me when I needed you most."
The Lord replied,"My child. My precious child. I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
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~Footprints of my Life~
 God is teaching me about a lot of things this year. Firstly, I have a total of about 42 teaching periods a week. I was given heavier responsibilities - 2 English classes and 1 Math class. All the core subjects. It was a stark contrast to my 33 period a week timetable last year. Not only did I have less free periods, the marking was also heavier. I was fighting for time to mark my books and worksheets every week. It also required considerable amount of strength to teach well for 7, 8 or 9 periods every day. Secondly, I have more children with problems this year. Because I take charge of 2 Eng classes, I am like taking charge of 60 children and and there are about 8 of them with problems. This year, I face children who do not know how to read, children from divorced families, children from single parent families and children with behavioral problems. It was absolutely draining. The first term was a nightmare because I didn't know how to handle these children. I was at my wits end as well. Despite all these problems, I must say that God has been gracious to me because He has provided me with helpful experienced colleagues who have helped me to control the situation a lot better. Thankfully, I have been able to handle the child with behavioural problems. However, last month, 2 children sent me crying at night after work because I did not know how to deal with the situation. One of them was from a single parent family where there was zero support from home. I met up once with the parents and they were young, my age. The father smelled of smoke. His grandmother does not know English and works night shift. Only the maid cares for him at night and because of that, he watches TV till late at night. His work so far has been horrendous and his schoolbag is like a rubbish bin. In all honesty, I can tell you that I was very angry with the parents for neglecting the child to this extent but yet there was this feeling of helplessness because there was only so much I could do. The thought of this child not being able to catch up in school and eventually falling away to bad company in the future due to a lack of family support was horrifying to me. In my distress, I cried out to God because I really did not know what else I could do. But I am not going to give up. You can be sure that I am going to meet up with the parents again. I am really praying that God will give me the courage and conviction to say what I need to say to the parents. God really taught me a lot about parenting through all these children. Firstly, I learnt that parenting was not a part time profession, it is a full time thing. To be a parent is a tall order and it requires selflessness and sacrifices from the parent. Sensible and successful children do not always come up by chance (though they sometimes do as a result of God's grace).These children more often than not a result of the seeds of love, time and effort that are sown by the parents since they were young. As a parent, the emphasis should not only be on results but on molding a child's character as well. Values like humility, love, trust in God have to be demonstrated and not just said to the child in order for the child to pick it up. The parent is the most important role-model to the child, do the wrong thing and the child is going to learn from you and do that wrong thing as well. Being a parent requires you to make a conscious effort to be a good role-model to your child at all times. Secondly, I learnt that the best gift that parents can give to their children is a good marriage. Having children is a 'we' thing, not an 'I' thing. I don't have to think too hard to realise that children who have problems in school are often a result of single parent, divorced families and familes where the parents are together but not on good terms. The family was created by God as a protective stronghold for the child. The child needs to feel safe in a family. When the parents don't get along, the child will inevitably feel insecure and have a whole lot of problems in the future. This realisation has got me thinking that it is thus very important to choose your spouse carefully. Does your partner have the qualities of a responsible husband/wife? Of course, no one is perfect but I am talking about a person who recognizes that they has weaknesses and tries their best, with the help of God to overcome their weaknesses and be a good husband to his wife and a good father to his children. Who you choose to be with now is definitely going to have a profound impact on the children that you have in the future. It's really a tiring time. There are too many problems around me. However, I thank God that He has taught me valuable lessons through these children. And my prayer now is that God will use me to reach out to these parents and guide them to help their children because I am a teacher and a teacher can never take the place of a parent. MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 6:42 AM
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