It's Those Little Times...

...when sometimes God uses routine people in your day to encourage you.

Today I am thankful for the guards who check our IDs every morning at the gate going into work. I could insert top secret sounding spy music here and make myself sound super high-class, secure, and important...HA! Instead, I guess I'll just tell you I teach on an Army base, and every morning I wait in a line of traffic to drive through a gate and show ID to get on the base.

But that's not the point. God has used these men and women to encourage me in such funny and random ways over the past two and a half years. Most days I drive up, show my school ID and go through the gate with a, "Have a good day, Ma'am." But sometimes it's different.

I still remember the time my first year of teaching when I was having a pretty bad week, feeling down, and wondering if I would ever be a good, effective teacher. That was the morning I drove through the gate and the man said, "Have a good day, Ma'am. Oh, and...don't let those kids get you down!" As I passed through and drove into traffic, I got chills. He had no idea I was having a bad week. Or that I taught every student in my building. It was truly one of those times where you slow down, look in the rear view mirror, and check to see if he is still there, or if he was one of those people God sent at just the right time, just to speak with you, and then they're gone.

Lately there is a guard who says every morning, "Have a blessed day..." which just adds a little extra joy in the morning.

And today, the guard said, "Ma'am, you've been selected for a random search..." to which my mind suddenly switched into, "I hope I have all the right documents/nothing suspicious looking and that this won't take long and make me late for work..." when suddenly he said, "and you're going to have to drive ten laps around the building before we can let you go..." and cracked a big smile, telling me "Just kidding - have a great Friday!" I was still smiling a few minutes later when I got to school. A little humor  goes a long way sometimes!

So, today I'm thankful for the ordinary people I see every day. I'm thankful for the ways God uses them, while they spend hours standing at a gate, checking IDs with sometimes rather impatient people waiting to get through.

And I'm thankful that God uses me, just an ordinary person, walking through life, teaching school, loving kids, and trying to be more like Him every day (with super spy music playing in the background! lol) You never know when He will take you, an ordinary person in an ordinary moment, and use you in an extraordinary way if you just let Him!