Concert Of Prays

This past Tuesday, we had our annual Spring Band Concert at WCS. As always, it was terrific! Linda and Michael Smith co-direct our four bands and they do an absolutely amazing job. All four bands (fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh & eighth grade, high school) played and all four were incredible. We hear them in December at our Christmas Concert but in the Spring, they even surpass that holiday event! Get this- a number of our eighth graders are so good, they play with the high school group! The future is bright indeed. Here's my one question: For the last piece, all four bands played together perfectly and they never practice together. How do they do that? Try that in a sport!!!

As terrific as the musical performance was, it was only my second favorite part of the evening. As I was walking out of the gym, the concert hall for the evening, a lady approached me and asked,
"Are you Coach Hawley?"
"Yes, ma'am,"
She introduced herself and told me her child was a student in one of my classes. Furthermore, her child absolutely loves the Bible class and they discuss what we do/learn on a daily basis. I was flattered; that's exactly the kind of interaction teachers love having with parents. But the best was yet to come!
"Coach Hawley, we pray for  you every night and we pray for you by name!"
WOW! I was absolutely blown away! I thanked her profusely and the next morning, I made sure her child knew I had the honor of meeting Mom. In an eventful week for me, it was the most eventful event. In a paraphrase of Mark Twain's famous quote, I can live a week on an eventful event!

There are people I know who pray for me on a regular basis. I know because they've told me and some of them are you who are reading this.... and you know who you are. I pray for a number of people on an everyday schedule but except for my players, I rarely tell anyone. Often, as happened in the halls a number of times last week, I tell kids at school I'm praying for them about a situation. But, that is usually a time or two until the crisis is passed or it simply slips my mind. I pray for my relatives but that is expected. But to find out that someone whose path has never crossed yours is lifting your name to the Lord is just something that lifts the spirit. I've never had anyone tell me they were praying for me to whom I didn't instantly feel a huge debt of gratitude. Come to think of it, I've never told anyone I was praying for them that I didn't receive that same thankful reaction! That's a pretty good impetus for me to share that insider information as well! I guess I just needed to face the music joyfully! Bring on more concerts!

Applicable quote of the day:
"Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude, and as we pray for others."
David A. Bednar

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com