August 15, 2011 10:18 p.m.

I apologize for being so silent for so long.  I think I have been encumbered by a severe case of “writer’s reluctance”.  This is a condition in which I found myself thinking about many things, but not especially caring to set pen to paper.  I have to admit, as I continue along with this blog, I find I am getting more careful and selective about what I write about.  In the old days of this blog, about three years ago, I would often write about anything I was thinking about with little filtering.  But now I feel a greater conviction about being selective.

Well, I must tell you about a way in which we were blessed this summer, behind the scenes, with little actual effort on our part.   It was truly the Lord’s doing.  But to understand this, I need to refer you to an old post from two years ago regarding a situation that has prevented our kids from becoming direct students at our violin teacher’s studio.  Basically, she has had a no-compete clause with the owner of a certain music school we’ve been part of for eight years now.  This means that we have been stuck paying the high rates of the music school in order to stay with our teacher. 

Things are a bit different this year, though.  Chips and Sweet Girl have now become the only students of Miss S.  who are still part of that school.  All the rest of her students are her “private studio” students.  In addition, she had earlier notified the school owner not to send her any more new students; that she was only going to take private students from now on.   (Corollary: if our children leave the school, this effectively terminates our teacher’s employment by that school).

We just wrapped up the summer quarter at the music school, and I was dismayed to note how high the tuition rates have gone up.  I asked the school owner if this new price would be sustained into the Fall quarter, and she said that it might be lowered some; that summer brought low volume, so they had to make up for that somewhat.  But at least she realized that we were “price-sensitive”.  I also asked Miss O, another teacher at this school who also teaches violin at our church.  I asked her whether or not she would be able to temporarily (legally) take my kids on as students at our church.  After all, seeking lessons from Miss O at our church would save us $26 per hour of instruction time!   Can you imagine how that adds up in a year?  (We get about 90 minutes of instruction a week).

Well, she (Miss O) didn’t answer my email, and she avoided seeing me at church for a few weeks, so I read that as reluctance on her part to entertain my question.  I knew she had a sense of loyalty to our present teacher, and wouldn’t want to take our kids for that reason alone.

What I didn’t know was what she was doing behind the scenes on our behalf.

When the summer term ended, we went to our supposed “next-to-last” lesson with Miss S and told her that we could no longer afford the high rates of the school and would have to terminate our lessons with her for a year until her contract period was over, before we could go back to her.  In the meantime, I had started asking around to find a possible temporary (one year) teacher.  I dreaded this task, but figured we had no other choice.

And then a miracle occurred.  Miss S told us that a few days prior, the owner of the music school had called her and told her, rather “out of the blue”, that it would be okay for her to take our children as her private students.  Just like that.  Her explanation was, “It’s time.” 

And, Miss S also told us that she would even match the discounted rate at our church!  (due to insurance issues, our church is unable to hire Miss S).

All we can conclude is that Miss O had gone to bat for us with the music school owner.

Well, to say we were happy and relieved  is an understatement.  All I can say is that we have truly been blessed behind the scenes.  The Lord, working in people’s hearts, on our behalf.  He took care of us again.  And the resulting cost differential more than adequately covers the new tuition for orchestra and for additional competitions. 

Simple miracles that mean much.  How neat is that?