Math Miracle

This is Jill's first year of high school. She has always done pretty good in school and never has had to put in a lot of work. This year though, things changed. She had a math class that was really difficult, and after a month or so it became known to us that her mark was around 55%. We had a big talk and helped her realize this wasn't going to be okay. She wants to go to an away camp with the swim club for Spring Break and so I told her that she had to get her marks up to 80% in order to be able to go to the camp. This seemed to her to be an absolutely impossible goal. She got to work though. We helped her understand that for every hour i class she might have to do an hour's work at home.  This was shocking and horrifying to her and initially, I think she didn't believe us. As time unfolded we realized she really didn't know how to study. She came to me one day and said, "Mom, I have my calculator out, I have my books out...now what do I do?"

I helped her figure out what she needed to do (practice!) and pretty soon she got the hang of it. Soon she started bringing the books home and studying quite regularly. Each test got a little better, with a few stars here and there, and a few mishaps as well. However, by the end of the semester she needed to get a really good mark on her final to help to get 80%.

Luckily, in high school, there is an exam break, so she got the time to spend her days studying.

As the day of the exam approached she was really nervous. Her mark was hovering around 70% and she really couldn't afford to blow this. Her nerves were really getting to her. My heart was softened a little and I told her that if she really worked as hard as she could, and wasn't at exactly 80%, she probably would still get to go on the trip.  That was a bit of a relief - but she still, appropriately, felt the pressure. She even cancelled out of a swim meet to prepare properly for the exam. Now we knew she was serious!

The day of the exam Allen gave her a blessing. She wrote the exam and told us that she knew what to do on every question. That was a big deal! We got the results, and sure enough, she had done very well on the test. Well enough to bring her mark to 78.5%!

We were relieved. She was grateful.

All in all, it was a miracle. She had to work hard. It didn't ever come easy to her, even after plenty of studying - but somewhere along the way there was some grace. She said she thought maybe the teacher made the test a little easier than she had originally planned. I think maybe we saw a miracle happen. She did the work. The Lord knew she had put in the time and she was blessed to be able to understand it, to have the wisdom to focus on the right topics, and as a result, she did it.

I'm so grateful for miracles!