My Faith

5 minute Friday — ADAPT

The first thing that comes to my mind with the word ADAPT is my teaching career.  



Way back when, long, long ago, I graduated from college and became a teacher. After teaching 5 years, I had a baby. I tried teaching AND mommying for a bit, but ended up becoming a stay-at-home for 12 years with my kids. After twelve years as a stay-at-home mom, there was a change in our family’s situation. At that point, for a variety of reasons, I decided to go back to the classroom

Once I landed the big job, boy was I in for a surprise. EVERYTHING had changed. 
When I left, I was excited to use a color transparency and a dot matrix printer. When I returned, my old manila file folders that I had kept all of my “great activities” and “useful documents” were laughable.  I HAD SO MUCH TO LEARN!
 I had to ADAPT.  It was necessary. TO SURVIVE!
What was my process?
  • First—I panicked (I’d be lying if I didn’t include this—it happened)
  • But then, I humbled myself, and began to ask questions.
  • I prayed for God’s help and asked other people for help.
  • I tried new things.
  • I made mistakes and experienced frustration. 

But I didn’t give up!
  • I pushed through the quitting points and made it to the other side.

And the things I am doing now in the classroom…are pretty cool
Way better than the “back in the day” stuff 🙂 
What’s the point in telling you all of this?
I’m just wondering if anyone out there might be stuck living out of a manila file folder when God wants to “wow” you with a new thing that seems a little “out-of-your-comfort-zone?” 
If so, maybe this small story of my teaching experience will encourage you to ADAPT.

I’ll keep adapting if you will, too! 


P.S. I’d love to hear about how you’ve had to ADAPT in some way.