Story time!
So, I have a student, who is new to our school this year, that came in VERY skeptical about faith and religion. Basically wasn’t looking forward to religion class and put a wall up that basically made her see my lessons as pointless and irrelevant.

However, she was actually really respectful towards me and is one of the sweetest students. I just knew that she had this wall up about religion and faith and that she was struggling with it.

A few weeks into the school year she told me that she was “having a battle” in her mind because she thought she didn’t believe and now my class is starting to make her think otherwise. However, she still had that wall up and was still fighting it.

Since October is the month of the rosary, I am having my students and I start off each class period with a decade of the rosary. I also challenged my students to pray a rosary, or at least one decade of it, every day for the month of October.

I told them to give it a month, even a week, of them praying it every day and to watch how their life is transformed.

WELL, a few days after that, the student I mentioned earlier, stopped me at lunch with the biggest smile on her face and said, “Miss Garza, I’ve been praying and honestly this is the happiest I’ve ever been!! I’m even journaling about it and I wrote a song about it!”

Y’all, my heart swelled with happiness and peace. She was being so genuine and I honestly sensed a change in her for awhile but this really put things into perspective. I told her to remember this feeling because life isn’t always going to be happiness and sunshine.

I encouraged her to keep praying & that if she has any questions about anything, that my door is always open. But my gosh, was I so happy & humbled to have that encounter!! This is why I teach. This is one of the 102727192927 reasons it is so rewarding to be a religion teacher.

So, if y’all could join me in praying for her, for all my students, and for all of our youth in general because they need it. They need us. They need true witnesses to the faith and for adults to be unafraid and unashamed to live the Gospel.

You could be the only example of Jesus a child may encounter. Be a good one.

Aaaaaaand, now I’m done. Sorry for the rant lol