About the Book

Book: It’s a Good Day to Be a Teacher: 52 Devotions to Equip and Encourage Educators Author: Gretchen Huesmann Genre: Devotional Release Date: Febuary 25, 2025 Refresh and Refocus Your Teaching Heart Today’s educators face unprecedented challenges in and out of the classroom. Teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and special education teams need more than a few words of encouragement and a pat on the back. Divided into four terms—fall, winter, spring, and summer—It’s a Good Day to Be a Teacher targets the trials and joys educators encounter year-round. The weekly devotions provide:

Spiritual insights and inspiration
Courage to continue the calling
Practical steps for application
Additional suggestions for deeper study

Teachers who use the tools of God’s Word and prayer will be encouraged and empowered as they witness God at work in their students, classrooms, and schools. This book helps educators teach from a place of purpose and peace and provides hope and strength to teach another day.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Gretchen Huesmann comes from a long line of educators, including both parents and grandparents. Her three-decade teaching career, in private and public schools, spanned seven states. Today, Gretchen enjoys mentoring and encouraging educators, ministry workers, and women’s groups. She is also a tutor and substitute teacher. An award-winning author, Gretchen is a member of Word Weavers International and serves as president of the Pensacola chapter. Her e-book, Teachers’ Prayer Companion: Prayer Guides for Education Teams, can be found at GretchenHuesmann.com. Gretchen and her pastor husband have raised four children, three of whom are teachers. Their empty nest sits near the gulf shores of north-west Florida.

More from Gretchen

Before I wrote the devotional for teachers, the focus of my writing had been for children. As a semiretired teacher and empty-nester, I’d hoped to fulfill my dream of writing picture books by investing in webinars, workshops, and resources to hone my craft. Then I was called back into teaching. Three years and a pandemic separated my time in the classroom. The discrepancies in children’s abilities and behaviors appalled me. I experienced firsthand the added pressures I’d heard from colleagues. Three of my adult children, also teachers, shared similar struggles. Now I faced those challenges, too, so I sought the Bible for help and support. Looking back over my teaching career, spanning more than thirty years in and out of the classroom, I discovered God was with me through every challenge. I wrote out a few of my experiences and applied Bible verses to those scenarios, uncovering valuable lessons. As I compiled the devotions, common subjects emerged, such as staff relationships, pupil concerns, and dealing with parents. Yet, when I organized the book, I felt uneasy emphasizing the negative issues. Laying out three quarters of the printed devotions on my dining table, I prayed over the topics and asked God to reveal the structure that would attract and encourage educators. The answer was revealed as I recognized a progression through the school year, thus determining the structure of the book: Fall Term, Winter Term, Spring Term, and Summer Term. Each section includes relevant topics for the school year, including the all-important recovery during the summer season. I hope teachers, administrators, and special educators will be not only encouraged by the devotions geared especially for them but also empowered to teach another day.

Interview with the Author

Why do you think the topic of your book is important?

Today’s educators face unprecedented challenges in and out of the classroom including rising student behaviors, angry parents, and unsupportive communities and school boards. Since the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of teachers have walked away from the classroom. Teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and special education teams need more than a pat on the back. God’s Word and prayer will empower our educators, providing courage and strength to continue their calling.

What did you learn from writing this book?

As a pastor’s family, we moved several times over three decades taking me to several public and private schools during my teaching career. Sometimes, those moves seemed like one wearisome adjustment after another. Little did I know that the Lord planned to use each upheaval to provide new insight and fresh perspectives which inspired many of my devotions.

What is your favorite hymn and why?

My father was also a teacher, then a pastor. He passed away at age 44. My mother would sing I am Jesus’ Little Lamb to me at bedtime. Like a lost sheep, I wandered and wondered who would care for me. Yet the promises within the hymn stayed with me in the darkest moments. I sang them to my children and still have all three verses memorized. The hymn will also be sung at my funeral. For “when my short life is ended, by His angel host attended, he shall fold me to his breast. There within His arms to rest.”

What is one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?

As a child, I was extremely shy and insecure. The seventh of eight children, I often felt invisible and that was okay with me. Speaking in public began when I became a teacher, then as a pastor’s wife/Bible study leader, and M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Preschoolers) leader. After speaking for 30+ years, I still become nervous and need the calming presence of the Holy Spirit to address an audience with confidence. I am proof that anyone can learn to speak in public and I enjoy assisting writers in developing their speaking content.

If you could sit down with someone for five minutes, what would you say to them?

I would love to sit down with my earthly father and ask him all the adult questions I missed out on. What made him afraid? How did he pray for his children when he was ill? What is heaven like? I suppose I will learn all that when I join him. But a face-to-face conversation while I continue the journey here would bring such joy. In the meantime, I speak to my Heavenly Father for all those unanswered questions.