Work has been increasingly stressful. I love that I feel useful and that I’m building community with my co-workers but this week it all came to a head. I wanted to put on an assembly to celebrate Black History Month so that the students could feel pride in their history. It seems like everything happened so that this assembly couldn’t take place. People got busy, students dropped out, and I got stuck in meetings that distracted my time to plan it. The day finally came, Thursday, March 7th. The students were amazing but their audience (their fellow classmates) were so disrespectful. I was SO angry! I put all this time and effort into it and it was being received or reciprocated. At the end of the day I just broke down and cried. Anger turned into disappointment and hopelessness. I felt nothing I did would reach these kids.
Sometimes that happens in life. Sometimes we do our very best and we leave feeling overworked and under appreciated. Sometimes we feel like nothing we do it ever good enough. But I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. We cannot let our feelings dictate the truth to us. The truth is:
You are AMAZING! You are a HARD-WORKER! You are APPRECIATED!
I was able to hang out with one of my best friends afterwards and her presence just makes me feel better. Then I got an email from one of the deans at my school who I consider a mentor and he included this verse:
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24
I totally forgot about God in all of this. I lacked the peace I needed to get through the day, the faith in knowing that I had worked hard, and the patience with the students who just didn’t seem to care about their own history (that’s another discussion completely).
When we remember we do all things for an audience of one, we can walk away from situations knowing that in the end, God is proud of you. He sees your efforts, He knows your heart, and He loves you.
Confessions of an Enduring Optimist 
Great post, Maya! ❤…I too sometimes struggle to remember that I serve as unto the Lord; that He is truly the reason why I do things. However, in those hard moments when your hard work seems to go unnoticed by man, I tend to feel in adquate, lacking because I’m so busy looking for man’s applause more than God. But, what a great reminder to keep our eyes focused on God and God alone!. He is the only audience that matters! ❤
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I love it! The “audience of one” is an exceptional and rightful description!
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