A Loss Nothing Compared To The Gains this Sept

One moment, I was filled with gratitude receiving gifts from my students. The next moment I was reduced to silent tears.

‘ Sorry, I cannot find any of your documents….’ X broke the nightmare news to me. NONE of my work had been saved in my computer. Happy Teacher’s Day!

That day, I went home in disbelief. I know, I should, yes SHOULD have saved ALL my school work into an external drive. I did not have the habit. Period. I had thought that the update of my computer was a normal scan. Anyway, X should have at least ask me to save my work Before the wipe out. My response  was however a subdued one, to my genuine surprise. Because inside me, I imagine throttling X?! Somehow the Lord has been working in my heart this year and changed a lot of my attitude towards things. I did not react. I just swallowed my shock, prayed and left.

Prior to this incident, I was meditating for 1-2 weeks on 1 Timothy 6: 6-8 as it was a reccuring verse and theme appearing on my own devotional times as well as sermon.

 ⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 

This verse took on a new depth of meaning after the loss of my hard heart work (3-4years of lesson plans and PPTs and logistic documents and loads of photos). I learnt that sharing my lesson resources with my department salvaged the important curriculum that I had created. If I had not shared them, it will be a tragic case of ZERO traces of work. Somewhere along the line, I also shared some relevant resources with my trainee. However, the old copies and my recent resources that I have done were forever lost.

As I considered my loss, it dawned on me that I had placed a LOT of worth in the work that I had laboured in school to feel such a heavy heart souring loss. Where is my treasure set? Is it in the ‘good’ work I had done or is it on things above?

A decision and choice must be made. To consider godliness and contentment as great gain. The basic needs of having food and clothing is ENOUGH. Why? Because we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it.

Then the question was whether I considered this loss more than the gain in knowing Christ Jesus our Lord? Phil 3:8  Paul had considered his loss as garbage and nothing compared to his gain in Christ. With that, I surrendered my loss and thanked God for the half cup of work that is still left intact and consider it nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Being content in Him is great gain indeed. Having a growth mindset alone is not enough. Our minds need to be renewed by God’s truth in order to grow in godliness and contentment.

I forgave myself and X for the glitch and experienced the peace of God which transcends all understanding to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus (phil 4:6-7). I am grateful that I have a job, good health and ability to re-do whatever work that I have lost. It is also an opportunity to improve on my ideas and plans. Nonetheless, the reality of an empty computer hit me as I started my work for the new week. I have to retrack what documents I still had in my sent emails and try to recall what I had already done with my classes. Now I have to depend on physical evidences to recall my processes. Ah… the inconveniences of asking my colleagues for stuffs are just the beginning of this trial. For More grace, His grace that is sufficient to keep forgiving and be joyful! AND I will start the habit of saving all my work from now onwards! ; p

A dear friend shared this post on preparing to know Christ deeply through suffering After she read my post. It encouraged me greatly to train myself in view of Christ’s sufferings.

Other gains in this hols include the time spent with my family and catching up with long time no see friends! We had a good break from our KSL & Bukit Indah trip before settling a basic routine in the hols.

It was a loose routine of outdoors, playground time, free play, back to basics revision for EOY exams and cooking.

Time alone

The below is one of those time alone  where each kid occupies 1 room/corner to do their own silent play/reading for an hour of peace. This practice is helpful as I find each person needs that hour of quietness without overstepping on each other’s toes with constant playing. It is interesting what each would settle down and do. E decided to do her own chinese writing.

Open-Ended Play 

While the boys did their basic revision, E had her open-ended play with the loose materials silently.

Pizza Dough Making 

The kids had been begging to DIY their own pizza as they miss eating pizza. I thought this hols will be a good time to do so. However, when the time came, I was pretty tired out. Therefore, I decided to leave entirely the dough making to the kids from scratch! After they fumbled about the recipe a while, I stepped in to draw the instructions on the board. It worked like a charm. They did the rest by themselves while I resisted interfering the process!!! From 4pm they finally ate at 6pm. It was such a relief that they were successful!!! A was so proud of his mega pizza that he was determined to finish it and claim his ‘Guinness world record’ of our street! I wondered why there was so little cheese on his pizza. I melted when I knew he was afraid there were not enough cheese left for others.

It was heartening to witness how they co-operated with each other and completed the task all by themselves. It is time to let them step up in independence…. They are indeed growing up.

For the recipe and a video of the dough making process, do check HERE.

 

Outing

It was my first time, while kids’ second time to Tampines Sports hub. After breakfast, we viewed the mega screen Minion movie and settled comfortably at the library. Then proceeded to popular for a second round of book feasting.

Colours of the Bible

We also visited the Art Exhibition at The Colours of the Bible.

We brought kids there in the hope to inspire them. Turned out that I was the one touched and inspired by the moving expressions on the Bible character families by singaporean families. The nativity set was done by Z, a 7 yo boy whom I had the privilege of having him for art in the past. It is encouraging to note that his parents were highly supportive in his creative interest and gave him much room and freedom to create. The family unit indeed is a basic baseline and frontline for training future God-seeking men and women.

After the last SA1 reflections on a time to Grow and Glow, I shared on how we did our basic revision and this time round, I restrained myself from nagging and went through the tests corrections with my eldest with more patience. I was determined to trust God for their progress and attitudes.

How was your holidays with kids?

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