During the past few weeks I've been really striving to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle in order to honor God with my physical body. I've stopped drinking coffee at school. They noticed. I've been bringing a healthy lunch everyday. "What are you eating, Mrs. Kilgo? Smells delicious!" they say. They've seen me politely turn down offers of special birthday treats, and on occasion have even seen me in my work out clothes jogging after school.
Although I didn't have my students in mind when I began making these changes, I can see that it is effecting them. We're talking about exercise, building stamina in sports, healthy eating, and training for 5Ks. They're asking questions. But what really got me thinking about how much they're actually watching was a statement written by one of my kiddos.
They were asked to compare a character in a selected text to someone they knew and one child wrote, "Dr. Shannon is like Mrs. Kilgo because they both work really hard to be healthy and stay in shape..."
Wow! Yet another eye opener of how much they are watching and how much influence we have over our kiddos. Knowing I'm far from perfect, I pray that most of my impact on them will be positive.