Be good at your craft

Lacey is almost finished with her first full year of teaching. On Thursday, we sat in the school auditorium to watch the class of fourteen 8th graders graduate from a private school environment some of them had been at for over 10 years. I looked over at her as one of the students read the speech they had prepared to give in response to moving on from the school, and in that moment, I saw a beautifully unique smile that seemed to reward her for the hard work in not only educating well, but building good relationships with her students.

Being an educator is by no means an easy task. There are hard days that are deflating. But as I saw in that smile, there is a reward. Lacey is clearly doing what she was made to do. She gives it purpose. And it returns that to her. In that moment (and throughout the rest of the night) I thought, "Lacey is so good at her craft!"

Earlier that morning, I had a cup of coffee with my dad and toward the end of our time together, there was a call he had to take regarding a church-related issue. And in my brief moments of listening, I thought the same exact thing: "He is so good at his craft!"

What is always noticeably different is that those who are good at their craft generally love their craft!

I am spoiled to know a lot of people who are good at what they do (showing you what these friends do is one of the most fun things about having this blog). And I encourage you to be awesome at what you do. Take a second to figure out what you do, what you want to do, and faithfully take the steps to get there.