The right deposits

5:43 p.m. Today's project was to take Steve over to my dad's house in Redlands to trim a tree that was hanging over his roof.

This expedition called for arising at 5 a.m., because Daddy wanted to get started before the heat turned up for the day. After a speedy drive through San Timiteo Canyon, a kiss hello to my dad and goodbye to my husband, a minute's visit to my daughter and son-in-law's house, and a grocery store trip, I was back at home.

Another project I had was left over from yesterday, when I tried everything I could think of to send out the written lessons for the I Samuel 22 study from Thursday morning. The group contacts program had failed on Yahoo, so now I moved to Gmail to start over. I had an hour before my hairdresser appointment, so I began typing up individual addresses of dozens of women.

During my comb-out, I received two great phone calls: Candace decided to become a Mary Kay beauty consultant; and a long-time friend called me with a renter possibility, a woman she knows from her church. We have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to let her see our home.

When I returned from my appointment, Daddy and Steve were there, finishing up their fast food lunch. My dad handed me a combination gift for my upcoming birthday and Steve's wages, so I was very grateful to know I'd be making a deposit-- a sorely needed one.

I went back to my email task. Shifting back and forth between the two contact lists, I sent out attached lessons to most of the 76 women who have requested the free study. Praise the Lord!

My afternoon was not finished, because I was able to go to my daughter's classroom to help her get it set up. I called her from the nearby Dollar Tree store in Jurupa to see if she needed any supplies, and took her some items--borders for bulletin boards, hand sanitizer, tissues, fun stuff for rewards--and we got started. It's a lot more fun spending time with your married daughter than spending time with your engaged daughter planning a wedding, let me tell you! It's especially great since we've taught the same grades in the same district. We can laugh, gripe and commiserate as teachers are all doing around the country this time of year. From the phone dangling from the wall to the piles of past teachers' paperwork leftover in the cupboards and scattered around the room, to the bright sunflower-themed bulletin board paper Mrs. Ilie chose, we'd just shake our heads and pick out the things we could use. (And dump the rest in the trash can).

Pavel came over to do some serious file cabinet and table moving, after Heidi introduced him to everyone who was still on campus. As I was tacking up alphabet letter cards and rearranging extra "may-do" activities for the dreaded "fast finishers," I commented to Pavel, "Imagine having to move furniture and decorate the walls of your workplace?! Teachers are really physical laborers--and people say we have easy jobs!" A recent comment from the custodian was that it was the gals' husbands' job to change the heights of the students' desks if the wrong ones were delivered to their classroom! "So I guess single women need to go find a man on the street with a screwdriver and other tools, and round him up!" I quipped. I hope the custodian was joking...

God blessed me with the opportunity to get involved in the "back to school" vibe like all of my teacher friends are experiencing, and I'm grateful for that today. I may be back after school starts to collate workbook pages for Heidi, something very time-consuming that I can easily handle. Besides, I'd like to get a peek at the kids so I can more accurately pray for them, and I'm glad I can make a tiny contribution to their school success.

As I deposited a bit of effort into those 20 little ones' lives as well as my daughter's, God filled my cup today, and poured out such a blessing into my heart "that there was not room enough to receive it!" (Malachi 3:10b)

That's a deposit of inestimable worth!