In just a week or so, I will be preparing to start a new school year.  It will be my third year at the school so I should be an expert or close to it by now.  So there are many knowns.  I will know most of my students and many of the staff I am working with.  I will know the campus and my principal.  But there are also many unknowns.  We have a different director.  We have many new staff which will change the dynamics of things.  We have changes in curriculum and my son will now be join W and I at the Jr. High/Senior High building.  When the known has so many unknowns, there are some things I need to remember.
1.  Expect things will be different.
2.  Comparing things to how they were last year doesn’t help but just gets a person frustrated.
3.  Remember God works best when I have given him all my expectations.
4. Be flexible and patient.
5. Don’t be a know it all but be ready to give advice when appropriate.
6. Seek to understand instead of reacting.
7. Remember why I am teaching at this school and focus on the goal.
8. Reach out to the new guys.  Everyone can use a friend.
9. It’s okay to miss how things were as long as I don’t stay in the past and take others with me.
10.  Pray.  Pray. Pray.

Dear God, You make all things new.  I give you my expectations.  I give you my worries.  Help me this year to focus on you and the opportunities you have for me.  Prepare me and equip me to best teach the students you send my way.  Give us solutions to problems that seem bigger than us.  Help us to meet the challenges that come our way.  In all things may you be glorified.  Amen