As I left school, my thoughts swirled, replaying a few less-than-perfect moments from the day—a lesson that didn’t go as planned, a challenging student who pushed a peer, and a difficult phone conference with a parent. I wasn’t thinking about the good moments that had taken place that day—a struggling reader had shown excitement about a favorite book, another student had given me a note sharing how much they loved yesterday’s science experiment, and my colleagues and I enjoyed a brief lunch where we laughed and connected over our children at home. In reality, the good outweighed the negative that day, yet I found myself dwelling on what “went wrong” as I left for home.

Sound familiar?

While reflecting on our days and identifying ways to improve our lessons can be valuable and enhance our teaching practices, focusing too much on negative experiences allows our enemy opportunities to plant seeds of inferiority, discouragement, and doubt. However, we can rise above negative thinking by cultivating an attitude of gratitude, recognizing how God uses us for His Kingdom purposes, and celebrating the beauty that He brings into our teaching ministry along the way. 

According to Tyler Staton, author of Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, one powerful way to develop this attitude of gratitude is through a practice inspired by a traditional Jewish song entitled “Dayenu.” In Hebrew, the word dayenu means "it would have been enough." Staton suggests that we can regularly take time throughout our day to recognize the ways God goes above and beyond. We can do this by first acknowledging God’s baseline blessing by praying, “Lord, it would have been enough if You just…” and then inserting a general blessing. The continuation of the prayer “but You…” opens our minds and hearts to recognize specific examples of the abundance and beauty God continuously pours out on us.

For educators, this might look like:

“Lord, it would have been enough if You just allowed me to have a job where I can make a difference, but You also gave me the necessary resources, eager students, and a passion for my subject.” 

“Lord, it would have been enough if You just gave me patience with this challenging student, but You also provide wisdom, empathy, and the support of my colleagues.”  

“Lord, it would have been enough if You had just helped me get through this day, but You also showed me small victories, moments of connection with students, and evidence of the beauty in learning.”  

So the next time we find ourselves dwelling on what went wrong rather than the good, we can pause to recognize how God goes above and beyond when meeting our needs. This enemy-thwarting practice causes us to see beyond our challenges, better recognize how God uses us, and rejoice over the beauty in our teaching ministry. We gain all of this and more when we thank God for going above and beyond.

Heather Kohnen has served in education for 30 years as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, and instructional coach. Currently, she is the AWAKE Director and Coordinator of Leadership Development for Christian Educators. Heather lives in Minnesota with her husband Corey and enjoys time with her adult children and grandchildren.