Through all of this, I have come to realize the importance of prayer. Although I can not be with my students outside of school, I can seriously pray for them, their families and the community of Watts in general. Prayer allows the Spirit to intercede and prayer is real and powerful. I have been praying for Mark and his mother, that she can come to realize that she needs Christ and that I am someone she can go to and trust. I have also been praying that the Lord would reconcile my relationship with this boy, even though I won't be seeing him outside of school.
In general, he has been acting crazy this entire week. His behavior has been rude, inappropriate and frankly out of control. Today he would not stay quiet during an assessment, so I made him sit on the floor and take the test. He got loud with me and I had to get loud right back until he sat on the floor. The spirit moved in me and gave me words to say to him. I eventually came back to him, got down on his level and said, "You were created for more than this. You were made with a purpose and no one else can complete that purpose. I am so mad at you because you are better than this and you are not living up to your potential. That ticks me off!"
He said nothing in response but his behavior started to change. He did not talk out of turn again. When the students were working on their essays. I asked him to read over his partner's essay and help her with it. When I looked back at him, he was looking like a big brother as he gently helped the little girl sitting next to him make corrections on her paper. It was the most beautiful thing I have seen the classroom in a long time.
Prayer is important! Prayer works!
...I still can't wait to move though ;)
