I love my job! Every day is a little different and every day has its own set of challenges and every day I love my job! As a special education teacher I have the opportunity to work with students every day whose lives remind me to not take the little things for granted. We all have struggles and we all learn to overcome challenges. I am honored to have a part in teaching my students ways to overcome challenges and learn in unique ways to reach their potential.
When I applied to Samford University, I had to write an entrance essay on the person who had had the greatest influence on my life. Greatest influence on my life….that’s a big question to answer, but for me it wasn’t a very difficult one. Of course, my family and close friends have greatly influenced me but one special person made an impact on me that will stay with me forever. A young boy named David helped me realize my heart for children with special needs. David never spoke a word. He couldn’t run and even walk, but David was so loved by his family. David was uniquely created by God for a divine purpose. God used my time with David to create in me a desire to see all children know they are important and loved. Every day I see my students overcome challenges, whether it’s learning to read or learning to walk. I am so grateful to David and his family for allowing me the opportunity to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that teaching special education is a part of God’s plan for my life. It is my privilege every day to work with these special students.
Welcome to Holland
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelo’s David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?!” you say. “What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower- paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away because the loss of a dream is a significant loss. But, if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
--Emily Perl Kingsley
Vacation Bible School at Shades Mountain Baptist is a church wide event. Everyone gets involved and there’s a place for everyone to take part.
It is such a blessing to serve with people who share the same desire for children to know that they were created special and that they are loved so much!
