At six years old, you need an advocate…
We had just moved from one end of town to the other and it meant that I would transfer from West End Elementary to Stony Brook for first grade.
There was only one problem. Stony Brook was “sold out.” There were literally no classroom seats for my little rump.
So the school set me up to go back to West End - clear across town.
It stirred something in my mom that I can still remember. There was a protective and fighting spirit in her that moved from indignation to boxing.
My mom went into the ring on my behalf.
“Call Father Campbell,” she told Dad, “and see if it’s not too late to get Bobby into St. Joseph’s Elementary.”
This was out of the box for Mom because all six of us went to public schools.
But it wasn’t just Mom that was my advocate. To this day, I believe I have a God who’s willing to get his hands dirty.
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First, school had started. Secondly, there were already 60 kids (you read that right) in the first grade class at St. Joseph’s. Lastly, with six children in school and another about to go, any thought of parochial tuition was out of the question for Mom.
With the cards stacked against me, I found myself being introduced to sixty classmates without a uniform; just shorts and long white socks that brought a giggle from more than one student. There was barely enough room for aisles in Sister Simon’s class.
But God and Mom fought for me and I see why now: God was building a faith in me that needed to be there from the ground up.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Sometimes we see circumstances as happenstances when actually they are fighting chances given by God. Where and when did God step into the ring on your behalf? Just as importantly, why?
SEND IN YOUR ANSWER AND WE WILL PUBLISH IT: awaken@Sonrisen.com
For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you…see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf…it is the Lord your God who fights for you…If God is for us, who can be against us?…the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you.
Deuteronomy 24:4 ESV, 2 Chronicles 20:17 ESV, Deuteronomy 3:22 ESV, Romans 8:31 ESV, 2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV