Prints of Love

I came home tonight after an almost 12 hour work day, between school meetings, running home checking on the kids, back to school for meetings, running back home to run my kids to the doctor, grab some Taco Bell, then go back to school.........As I walked in the kitchen, I noticed gray footprints on the floor. Evidently, while I was away, the mice decided to play. They had broken a thermometer, and gotten what I assume was mercury on the floor. After a poor job of cleaning it up, they left it to be tracked through the house. As I put aside the school work to clean up the "evidence," I thought back to our Trinity days and remember a mom saying how she didn't want to wash off the fingerprints from her windows, for one day, the there would be no kids around the house to leave them there. 
My mind is swirling with so many things these days, one of which is the fact that my own children are growing up so fast, right before my eyes. With that comes a whole other blog!
But after my own children, my thoughts and prayers have been for the 19 that will walk through my door Thursday morning. Those little faces, some of who I will meet at "Meet the Teacher," will hopefully be beaming as they see their desks, supplies, and new classroom. 
As we begin a new school year (how it came so fast, I do not know!!), I am always aware of the fact that I am with other people's children more than I am my own. For around 8 hours every day- give or take a some minutes- I am momma, doctor, counselor, negotiator, and teacher, just to name a few. Every year, I am overwhelmed with all that has to be done. Every year, I am afraid that I will not do enough. Every year, I face failures and victories alike. Every year, I cry. Every year I laugh- alot! It is true with our personal children as well.
But, today, in one of my running around moments in between meetings, I saw a student and his brothers from last year- and my heart lit up. As I saw those precious faces, I was reminded of the privilege that I have - to invest in these little lives. I was reminded that even though I fell in love with some little lives when I've been to Montana, Haiti or Ecuador, there are 19 more waiting for me right here in Corinth on Thursday.
As our speaker closed his message this morning, his final words were "just love them." 
So, as I entrust my own children to teachers who will spend more time with them than I will, and as I do the same for others' precious ones, my prayer for this year comes from 1 Corinthians 13- 

¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

And that HE, through me, will leave fingerprints that will never be washed away.