dear teacher mommy,

Dear Teacher Mommy,

So you’ve stopped cringing at the sight of a back to school commercial and you stopped darting the school supplies section of Target. You’ve conceded to the fact that school is here. In fact, you are getting a little excited. You can’t help but geek out about creating new bulletin boards and you can’t wait to see the students again. Truthfully, you are in love with your teaching job. But today, on the last day of summer vacation the reality that when your 3 year old asks what day it is tomorrow, you won’t say, “It’s another mommy day!” Instead it’s a babysitter day, and you don’t get to snuggle with the baby for twenty minutes every morning. And no amount of freshly opened crayon boxes, brand new lesson plans, or halls filled with anxious smiling seventh graders bursting through the door could ever make leaving your babies okay.

So as you pull up to in-service tomorrow morning and wipe away the tears, I want you to remember a few things.

1. You did not choose to be a teacher because you are selfish. You love your sweet children, but you were called to this profession. God laid the desire in your heart and handpicked your classroom. It is your mission field Mrs. Teacher Mommy, and you’ve got lives to love and hearts to point to the one who loves them most.

2. The anxiety of starting school is always fueled by the fact that busier means less in control. Once you are balancing grading, lesson plans, supper, and bedtime, you will not get the laundry done or the bathrooms cleaned liked you had hoped. But if I’ve learned anything about motherhood and balance, it’s that those moments of feeling out of control and overwhelmed are perfect places to stand in God’s grace. You are not superwoman mommy, you weren’t designed to do everything perfectly. You were designed to recognize that your weaknesses bring glory to God’s strength, the one that helps you to let go of the mommy guilt.

3. Your kids love you all the time, but they don’t need you all the time. If God called you to be a teacher, he has provided your children with care while you are in the classroom. Give your “preschool drop off” and “will baby take the bottle” worries to the one who made them and loves them more than you.

Remember Teacher Mommy, you’re not expected to do everything. But in everything you do, God will be there with his peace, with his strength, with his grace. As you trade in your yoga pants for pencil skirts, give your emotions and guilt to the one who gave you those babies and those students. You are enough for them, and you are exactly where you are called to be.