Bless Your Heart

            After working in education for over twenty years (including volunteering), I recently retired. I have had several reactions from people over the years when I told them what I did. Most people thanked me. Some snubbed me when I told them I was a teacher’s aide as opposed to a certified teacher. Some would say that they could never do it. The latest response was, “Bless your heart.”

            I live in the West, but the woman who said it had a soft southern accent. I’m told that in the Northeastern part of the U.S., if someone blesses your heart, they really want to bless you. After having lived for a few years in the South, though, I know it has a slightly different meaning there.

            A Southern woman might really want to bless you, but she blesses you because she thinks you are silly or stupid for doing whatever it is you did. This is a well-known phenomenon.

            When I heard it the other day, it reminded me of the lady who trained me for my first real job which was not in education. We were all Midwesterners there, and she described another person she trained as “a nice girl, but kinda dumb.” That is how I felt walking out after having my heart blessed. I laughed on the way to my car thinking, “That woman thinks I’m a nice girl, but kinda dumb.”

            To all of you who work in education, bless you. Truly. You are not silly or stupid for doing it. God has called you to do what you do. I know it is hard. I know it doesn’t pay well. I know you are often disrespected, but you are providing services that many people could or would not provide. I probably helped at least 1000 children over the years. Most of them won’t remember me specifically, but I hope they remember that someone truly cared about them. For the time I spent with them, they were seen, heard, and loved. Not many professions can claim that on a resume.