The pressure of our to-do list can be overwhelming, but yet God calls us to rest. How can this be? Join us to discover a God-centered approach to work, and how to rely on His grace to truly eliminate teacher stress and find balance, despite the busyness.
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The effect of grace vs. grind on teacher stress
We want to be efficient with our time, but where is that balance in trusting God and hard work? Let’s look at the concept of grace over grind. As teachers, how do we not burn ourselves out by grinding or forcing things to happen? How do we instead learn to work hard but by God's grace and by God's strength?
(The concept of grace over grind is actually based on a book by Shae Bynes titled, Grace Over Grind.)
We all know teaching takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of hard work. But, working hard can be done in a good way or a bad way. We are either working in God's best or working outside of His best.
When we are working outside of His best, a lot of times it looks like hustling hard, grinding hard, getting on that hamster wheel, comparing ourselves to other people, and burning the candle at both ends. So, there's a lot of teacher stress, anxiety, and overwhelm happening when we are working outside of God's best.
But when we're working in His best, there's a rhythm and rest that happens. We're being spirit-led and we don't have to live in overwhelm. We don't have to live in stress. We don't have to dwell there. There is just an awesome presence that happens when we are in His best.
signs of teacher stress
What are some signs that we are grinding or relying on our own strength rather than God's grace?
choosing grace over grind
Stop, pause, and connect
When you feel overwhelmed, stressed out, or you're grinding, stop, pause, and connect. Whenever you are trying to figure something out and it's not working, stop. Take a pause. Your pause can be three seconds, three minutes, three hours. That's something you can determine. Then, you connect with God. As you begin to do that, if you're genuine, you will see change.
Some additional practical ideas to stop teacher stress and re-focus on God are to:
- Read a prayer or Scripture card
- Go on a prayer walk
- Put on Worship music
- Stop, pause, and connect
- Take a break
- Read the book, Grace Over Grind by Shae Bynes
- Do a YouVersion app devotional
When you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed as a teacher, make a conscious decision to choose grace over grind. Re-focus your mind on God, His goodness, His plan for your life, and His best for you. Keep Him in the forefront of your mind and involved in your plans. Rest in Him.
To go more in-depth with this topic, listen to the full conversation above with Michele.
And for more practical advice and encouragement like this, grab the Rise Up Christian Educators Summit audio album. This conversation was originally a 2020 Rise Up summit session, and the album contains audio recordings of 30 more sessions that will equip and encourage you as you seek to fulfill your calling as a teacher.
resources mentioned:
Rise Up Summit for Christian Educators
Grace Over Grind by Shae Bynes
Doing Business God's Way by Shae Bynes
Michele's Website: Feed Their Needs
Email Michele at: michele@feedtheirneeds.com
Teaching Shouldn't Take Over Your Whole Life!
5 TIME-SAVING PRACTICES
to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed
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about michele holiday
Michele Holiday is a Behavior Strategist who works with teachers and schools to help them learn and implement effective strategies for classroom and behavior management.
After spending over 15 years working with students, schools and families, Michele believes that the key to reducing and stopping challenging student behavior and restoring order, positivity and productivity to classrooms is not more rules or suspensions but by looking beyond the behaviors and feeding the needs of students.
As a former District Program Specialist Of Behavior in South Florida, Michele stepped away from the public school system and started a consulting and training business to equip teachers and schools across the country.
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Thank you for this. This is exactly what I am going through now feeling a bit overwhelmed by my workload. However, changing my perspective has helped me a lot and praying during my small breaks.Much love to all the teachers out there ❤️
I applaud every part of this blog post! I’ve read Shae’s book and can’t stop talking about it. But I love the way you have practical examples of the ways we teachers put grind before God’s grace. Wow…thanks SO much for this post!