Is it so hard to sit on a chair?

Some days I wonder if my students conspire beforehand about what to do that day to test my patience. Today, for example, we had chair issues. Many chair issues. Or, more accurately, sitting issues. I can't even tell you how many times I had to say, "Sit down," or "Keep your chair on the floor," or "Your feet shouldn't be on your chair." All day long, I turned around and I saw feet hanging over chairs, chairs tipping backwards, students straddling chairs, picking their chairs up in the middle of class, sitting on the top part of their chairs... Sometimes one student performing more than one of those at the same time (and then I wonder why our chairs are falling apart.) By the end of the day, I was beginning to imagine what my students will be like someday as adults with office chairs. :-/

But then on days like today, I have to remember back to the beginning of the school year, and then I realize how far we've come. In the first few weeks - maybe months - of the school year, I had students regularly lying down on the floor and crawling under desks in  the middle of class. So maybe dealing with chair issues isn't so bad after all.

I don't think it's coincidence that this morning in faculty devotions we read this verse:

A person’s wisdom yields patience. (Proverbs 19:11)

Since I don't think God will ever look at me and say, "Okay, Michelle, you have enough wisdom and patience now," I guess I better get used to learning this lesson! One of our Social Studies lessons is about Benjamin Franklin, and he wrote his own epitaph, which I love:

The body of B. Franklin Printer;
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents worn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,
Lies here, food for worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believed, appear once more,
In a new and more perfect Edition
Corrected and Amended by the Author.  

Praise the Lord!