I’m giddy. Wanna know
why?
I know the names of 23 children that will be spending the
next 10 months in my classroom, starting tomorrow. 23 hearts – tiny people – made in the image of God, ready to learn all the grand
things we learn in 3rd grade.
Multiplication, making a generalization, evaporation, the
Constitution…the list goes on and on.
They don’t know me, and I don’t know them. And our journey begins.
We’ll all be timid at first, but as the ball gets rolling,
we’ll quickly settle into the rhythm of 3rd grade. We’ll get excited about learning, and we’ll
get bored with learning. We’ll squeal
with excitement at the start of a science experiment, and we’ll let out exasperated
sighs when asked to get our grammar books out (teacher included, sometimes). We’ll laugh together, pray together, and struggle
together as we learn math and spelling and history.
What a beautiful privilege it is to serve the Lord in this
way. What a beautiful privilege to be
used as His instrument. In the excitement
and chaos of the beginning of the year, I don’t want to lose sight of my job
description. Teaching, yes. But before I’m a teacher, I’m a child of the
living God. Which means I have a
much more important and beautiful job to do.
I get to proclaim His excellencies to these 23
children.
Every day.
Every day.
I get to tell these 23 about Jesus. I get to talk to them about the One I love and
how He loved me first. About how He
brought me out of darkness and into His marvelous light. About how He can do the same for them,
because He came, lived, died, and rose again to save sinners.
So when there is conflict, I get to point them to Him. When my students get frustrated with math, I
get to point them to Him. When I lose my
patience and have to apologize, I get to point them to Him. When we celebrate victories and identify
strengths, I get to point them to Him.
In all things, I get to point them
to Him.
By His grace, I’ll do my job. I’ll keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author
and perfector of my faith.
He’s given me this job to do within the context of
teaching. Which I love. So will we
learn math? Yes. Reading? Absolutely.
And we’ll have a blast doing it! Well, at least I will…
But if I lose sight of the reason I’m there, somebody please
remind me. God has given me 23 gifts to
love with His love this year. To Him be the glory.