God is love

Our bible verse of the day in my class was "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." 1 John 4:16. I feel like this verse is such a simple, but powerful verse. I asked the kids "what does this verse mean to you?" and one girl rose her hand and said "it means that God will love us and always will love us. Even if we do bad things. He forgives us over and over again." A first grader told me that. I was shocked by how much she knew. She understood what the verse said and I could feel the power and love of God through her when she said that.

I woke up this morning and was freaking out about my first day with my class. I didn't know what to expect. I just wanted the kids to enjoy the class and learn what I taught. When I went to get the kids at the gate, they didn't speak or anything and I thought "oh great they will never talk to me." As the day went on, however, they started to talk more and more and began to trust me even more. I was beginning to feel a little more hopeful than before that I would be able to have a bond with these kids. We read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" today, which was my favorite book as a child. I think I made my mom read it to me so many times, and I probably even had it memorized. We did a fun craft where they made a tree out of toilet paper rolls and a construction paper tree top. I then gave them sticky letters to decorate the tree, and boy did they have a kick out of that. 

They thought that the sticky letters were the coolest thing ever!

We have VBS and crafts everyday this week for about an hour and a half of the day. With VBS, they took pictures of the kids and had a portable printer that they printed out for them. We decorated frames and glued their picture. They had the biggest smiles on their faces when they saw their picture. They were even more surprised when we told them they got to take the pictures home. It melted my heart to see how special they felt that they got a picture of just them self. We had recess and then book club at the end of the day, and boy were those kids wired after recess. They were jumping and singing, and I wasn't sure I would be able to get them to calm down so we could read "Magic Tree House: Afternoon in the Amazon." Surprisingly though, they calmed down and were excited to read the book. They thought it was so crazy that there was a magic tree house that the kids could pick where they wanted to go.

This day went by fast, but slow at times, but overall it turned out to be a great day. I was able to play with the kids that live here after school; I was even able to get a nice hour nap in before dinner, so that was a great thing. This day showed me that I shouldn't have been nervous about my class. God is taking care of me, and He knows what He is doing in my life. He doesn't want me to worry. At the end of the day I just knew God was telling me, "Katy, you always have been and always will be a worrier. Can't you see that I am taking care of you? I know what I am doing, so don't worry about what will happen next. Just live in the moment, and live a life of love with me." He is taking care of my life, and I should just be thankful for what has happened and what will happen. He the best father a girl could have.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, 

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13