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Prayer Requests 5-7-22

Anyone have something to share?

Psalm 96

1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
    The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.

11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
13 Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
   He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

17 thoughts on “Prayer Requests 5-7-22”

  2. Prayers for you as well, Jo. And everyone here, for that matter. The older I get the more I treasure that gift of prayer!

    Liked by 5 people

  4. Thanks, Kathaleena, and all praying.

    Last night / today I have a raging migraine, so would appreciate prayers that it’s done by tomorrow. I want to visit my mom (and dad) on Mother’s Day.

    Some background on my recent laments about piano teaching, if anyone wants to pray with more specificity:

    A lot of what’s so difficult about the independent teaching business for me now is that it will soon be our primary source of family income. My husband is quitting his job soon because he’s burned out from working for 50 years at jobs he never particularly liked, but he’s still under 65, so retirement / SS benefits would be different now than if he waited until 65 to leave the workforce. So my income is crucial, and will be even more so once he stops work. (Which he plans to do after we get 5th Arrow’s diagnosis. We’re not expecting that his test results will come out very good, but whatever happens, hubby wants to be free to invest significant time in our son’s life while he still can.)

    I’ve asked hubby if he could help homeschool 6th Arrow once he quits work — she’s got four years of school left — but he says he’s not a teacher, and he wants me to continue being the sole homeschooling parent.

    So I’ve basically got two full-time jobs, with homeschooling and with teaching & prep & admin time for over 30 students (close to the equivalent of 40 students when you consider about a third of them have 1.5-length lessons).

    I’m not handling two FT jobs well, but having many students is something our family is increasingly relying in, especially now in the economic times we’re in. Food prices in the Midwest have jumped by a bigger percentage recently than anywhere else in the country, I read in an article from a national outlet last month.

    So I can’t afford to dump students to free up more time.

    The other problem besides loss of income when losing students is the anguish of “getting fired.” I’ve essentially got 2 dozen employers — households that pay me — and when a student quits, it’s like being told once again, “You’re fired.”

    I talked with my husband about this the other night, how often that happens, and how rejected I feel when it does. Another one quit on Monday, and it was like a stab wound to the heart, losing this particular student. I literally ran to my bedroom and sobbed when the super-kindly-worded note came in the mail.

    But anyway… I lamented afterwards to my husband that students are dropping at a much faster rate now than when I was a young teacher 30-40 years ago. Hubby said no one has staying power anymore. There’s a constant stream of young people at his workplace that are there for an extremely short period of time, then just like that are gone.

    It still hurts so much, though, when I lose the ones that drop by the wayside, even though from a time perspective, it frees up more time, which should make me feel less pressured.

    I can’t seem to find the happy mid-ground between too much financial pressure with diminishing numbers of students and too much time pressure with increasing numbers of students.

    And I don’t believe that at my age, I’m ever going to learn to stop taking “rejection” so hard when it comes. (And it comes again and again.)

    If you can make sense of any of this stream-of-consciousness writing and are led to pray in a certain way, thank you. But general prayers are appreciated, too.

    Liked by 4 people

  5. Continuing to cover you in my time with our Lord 6.

    We had two different piano teachers and both were excellent at their craft.
    For one it was more of an enjoyable hobby as they were quite wealthy due to her CEO husband’s employment.

    The other needed the income for her family and she felt pressure as well. However she was not homeschooling along with teaching. That is a heavy load on your shoulders and for that I am asking the Lord to help you make a way.

    Could husband help with “field trip” and “task” homeschooling. Sort of teaching last arrow some hands on learning of what husband does and has done with his skills to pass on? It wouldn’t be wrote work but interaction which seems to be his focus by quitting his job.

    And just to add that when some families leave it may be due to lack of budget for piano or student’s disinterest. Not a personal rejection. And in these days of inflation and high costs many are having to make hard decisions which in turn will affect small business owners. You are excellent in what the Lord has gifted in you…and I am believing and trusting He will make a way….hang in there sister..we love you….

    Liked by 1 person

  6. We’re heading out to visit D & I today. D wrote an email to his school admin stating that he does not support calling a young student by their ‘chosen’ name and gender and explaining his reasoning. The school division then put him on stay at home, paid leave until the ‘allegations’ could be addressed. D had no idea what ‘allegations’ until over 24 hours later. It was about the email. Please pray that he will stand strong and defend the truth. There have to be hundreds of other teachers in the province that agree with him and the Truth. He’s been expecting this for a few years so this comes as no surprise to him and he is prepared to lose his job. We pray he doesn’t because those young students need the Truth.

    He is meeting with the school division on Monday. Please pray.

    Liked by 4 people

  7. 6, I was one of those students that quit lessons early. I HATED practicing. My mom agreed to let me quit once I complete my grade 7 exams. I was thrilled. It was no reflection on the teacher at all. I am grateful (didn’t come until I was an adult) that mom made me go as long as I did and I am thankful for the two teachers over the years who invested so much in me. I hope this helps a little bit.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Thanks, everybody. My migraine has gone away, so I can rejoice in that!

    NancyJill, hubby has done some things with the older kids, teaching them about workings of cars and such, especially the girls with driver’s licenses, but he frequently complains to me that they act so disinterested in learning about it. So I’m not sure how he’d receive a request from me to do hands-on things with 6th Arrow out in the garage, when her older siblings’ track records have been mostly frustrating to him in that area. That’s something I should pray about, to find the right words in how to make that suggestion.

    NancyJill and Kare, thank you for providing perspective on your experiences with your own or your children’s piano lessons, and talking about some reasons students quit that aren’t a rejection of the teacher. I should clarify that when I say that I feel personally rejected after someone quits, I believe that that is an irrational thought. I think it’s planted there by the devil, a form of spiritual warfare.

    I hate that I react the way I do, because it’s not rational to feel that way, when there are so many reasons people quit. It’s not rational to call it a rejection in most cases, or a firing, like I did above.

    On the other hand, some colleagues of mine, with similar educational levels and years of experience as I have, who are charging as much or more than I do, have such a strong core of students that they literally haven’t lost any students in many years except for the ones who graduated or moved away.

    That starts me comparing myself to them — not a good idea to do — and wondering why I have this all-too-regular revolving door effect with my students. I wonder what’s wrong with me that I can’t hang on to mine as long as some of my colleagues do theirs.

    It’s rather maddening to play the comparison game, but I have a hard time exiting that mindset, destructive though I know it is.

    Liked by 2 people

  10. Kare, I’m praying for D and I. How difficult. It’s something I’ve been wondering about having to face sometime in the future with piano students. I believe as D does, and will certainly pray that he stands strong in the Truth.

    Liked by 2 people

  11. 6 Arrows – Praying for you, dear sister.

    Is your husband planning on getting a part-time job? After my dad retired, he enjoyed working at Home Depot. Hubby always said that he would want to work part-time when he would eventually retire.

    Like

  13. Praying for your man, Mumsee.

    ——

    Kizzie, hubby wants nothing to do with any kind of paid employment after he leaves his current place. He’s utterly burned out and so done with it all.

    ——

    Along the lines of Kare’s prayer request for D and I, I’d like to request prayers for a young mother in our church. During a Bible study several weeks ago, regarding sexuality, gender confusion, and similar “hot-button” topics, E shared her heartbreak and her wondering about how to Biblically handle a sticky situation in her extended family.

    Her sister is the mother of three children. The sister’s two daughters (E’s nieces) have come out as lesbians, and now their younger brother (E’s nephew and Godchild) is wanting to transition to female.

    I’ll leave it at that, but I know E would especially appreciate prayers for wisdom regarding her relationship with her Godson as she speaks Truth into his life.

    Thanks.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. Keeping you in prayer, 6. I cannot imagine anyone thinking they can just quit because they have worked in jobs they don’t like for however number of years. I just was not brought up that way, nor do I see that teaching in scripture. Prayers for him, too.

    My middle daughter quit piano lessons. She was the only one not required to do one classical piece at her last recital. The teacher commented on that. The whole last year of lessons the teacher worked in the music loved by my daughter. She was also learning fiddle on her own and singing with her father in various places. Her quitting had nothing whatsoever to do with the piano teacher. We all loved her. Perhaps part of keeping students is tuning into those who will not want to work as hard as you would desire them to do. Just because other teachers have students for years doesn’t make them superior teachers, necessarily.

    Grieving today for relatives of my son-in law’s cousin. They had four children die in a house fire. I have reason to believe they may be struggling with God, as well, after this horrible incident. Please keep them in prayer.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. So tragic, Kathaleena. What heartbreak for the family.

    Thanks for your prayers for my husband, too. Today in church there were prayers not only for mothers, but for a variety of situations pertaining to relationships, including for people whose mothers died in the last year. It’s close to six months since my MIL died, and I saw hubby wiping away tears after those prayers. As I’ve said before, the death of his mother brought out significantly more emotions than the passing of his father.

    Kathaleena, your point about tuning in to students not wanting to work as hard as I’d like is well-taken, and is something I’ve changed in the last few years. I have stopped telling kids how much to practice anymore, because a lot of them are overbooked with tons of other activities and decide they can’t sit down to practice piano for even 10 minutes on most nights. For some of them, their parents are basically paying me to hear them practice, because that’s about the only playing they do — at the lesson. I lost students in the past when I wanted them to practice 5-6 days a week and they or the parents thought that was unrealistic. But I also lost students who didn’t practice much when I loosened the practice requirements because they got bored with never progressing or got frustrated when they hit a wall beyond which they couldn’t move because their skill level wasn’t enough to tackle the challenges in advancing repertoire.

    I had a discussion with other IMTs (independent music teachers) recently and mentioned how overwhelmed I feel with all the planning and admin time involved with the number of students I have now. It was interesting what one teacher told me. She doesn’t change what she teaches, and she’s been operating like that for decades now.

    I, on the other hand, have tended to operate like your middle daughter’s teacher. If a student wants or needs a non-traditional approach, I research what are the best materials and methodology for reaching a certain student. But that takes TIME!

    My colleague’s recommendation that sticking to teaching from one method or collection of repertoire I’m familiar with honestly sounded so freeing to me, but my creative brain is telling me to stay away from a cookie-cutter approach.

    It’s a quandary for me, considering what is best for my students versus what is best for me. Do I go the everyone-studies-the-same-music (convenient, but also potentially boring for me) route or the what-does-this-particular-student-need (individually tailored) route?

    One of the wonderful things about homeschooling has been the opportunity to tailor my instruction to my kids’ unique challenges and strengths, so I’ve tried to bring that mindset into my piano teaching, too. But it’s almost becoming unsustainable to get to know all these students and find what works for them. Which leads to disappointment on a different level when students drop, because I feel like I wasted time and effort on someone who hardly stuck around long enough to make my investment on their behalf worth it.

    Sorry to sound like I’m griping. Deep in my heart, I love what I do, but my practical side says the way I’m approaching this is unsustainable under the circumstances, and something’s got to give, and soon, before I collapse in an exhausted, despairing heap.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Thanks much, Kizzie. Definitely needed.

    Sorry to be writing so much this weekend. It’s been therapeutic, and I feel strangely energetic and ready to knock out this busy week coming up.

    I chatted today with a lady at church I haven’t talked with in a very long time, like maybe a year or more. We have well over 1,000 members, and it’s not uncommon to go long periods without seeing someone or talking with them.

    The lady, older than I by maybe a decade, is both a former homeschooler and former piano teacher! I knew that before, but had not thought of that since starting to feel swamped from doing both things myself.

    I don’t know how many students she had back in the day when her kids were growing up, but she asked me if my kids are all grown up now and I’m done with homeschooling. I pointed out my youngest and said she would be starting high school in the fall, so I have four years of homeschooling left. Then she said, “You’re teaching piano, too, right?” When I answered that I am, she asked the usual question people ask, “How many students do you have?”

    My response (34) caused her eyebrows to go way up, and her jaw dropped, though she quickly smiled after that and exclaimed, “That’s a LOT!”

    We talked more, and she was her always-cheerful self, but I could see some alarm registering on her face with everything coming up with the family. (I didn’t tell her about 5th Arrow’s appointments, or hubby’s job situation, but spoke of the wedding that’s at the end of next week, and the post-covid makeup lessons in lieu of the time off I’d planned for next week, and my thoughts about possibly taking a couple months off this summer with my home students (eight) so I have more opportunity to visit my grandchildren.)

    Seeing a person’s facial expressions reveals so much, and it really got me to thinking about how alarming this appeared to a former homeschooler / piano teacher herself.

    Anyway, she really encouraged me to take that time off that I was thinking about for July and August. I believe I’m going to need it (and I certainly want to see my grandchildren more; they live two hours away), so I want to sit down and figure our budget to account for an approximate 25% reduction in my income for two months. (I’m not going to ask those families to give me paid vacation.)

    Would appreciate prayers for financial wisdom, too, then. Thanks.

    Liked by 3 people

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