A few weeks ago I checked in to a class I thought would be uplifting in terms of learning new skills for a particular discipline. But as I sat through the first and then the second lesson, all I could see was how much the teacher enjoyed breaking the "students" down. Bewildered, most of the time I was not concentrating on the art work at all, I was more stunned and shocked at what was happening around me. And it was all done in the name of Christ. There were a lot of things at work here of course, a religious spirit, control spirit, pride, lack of love - all the kinds of things we can expect to happen in these final days.These are not the kinds of things I want to go in to here, but needless to say I did not return to the class, but shared what I saw with the teacher and left.
But while I was standing in my kitchen today, I remembered the students I used to teach two years ago. I was employed to teach English to beautiful Indian nurses (both make and female) who had come over to South Africa to work. As I began to train them (I trained different groups for over 2 years) I learned their stories. I learned their hardships and their pains, their fears and the things they wouldn't say. Through their eyes, God gave me a profound sense of love for the people of India. Even once while on holiday with my husband a tour bus of Indians in traditional garb climbed out and happily started snapping pictures of the beautiful scenery. I stood back, watched them and just begun crying, it came from such a deep place.
So today while I thought about those years of training, I realised how each one of us is a specialist and each one of us is a teacher. It is true. Even if you dont think it is of yourself. One of my students was a male nurse who worked as the very first Indian to ever work in the heart surgery unit, he even made a way for me to see open heart surgery (I think he couldnt understand how I could faint when I saw blood!). Another one of them wrote Indian poetry which fascinated me. While I may have been there to teach them English, they were there to teach me from their perspectives. Each person you teach has a gift, each person you teach has a calling and each one is good at something, or maybe two things or maybe many things. One of them was a really good chef and could teach me a lot about food! That's how life is and maybe we should start seeing each other like this. Teachers often come from a fleshly place of control, because of their own places of woundedness, they struggle to be Christ-like teachers. So many of us have bad memories of bad school teachers! But now that we know how deep and how wide Messiah's love is for us, we can start teaching with a heart of love.
Each time you teach, teach to draw out what is good in someone else. When you are teaching your child to bake bread or to tie her shoe laces or to tell the time. If you are helping someone learn to access their email account, or you are teaching your kids in homeschool - think, what are they good at and let's realise, we are all teachers, teachers saved by grace and specialists in the areas God has called us to.
Let's build a community of teachers and specialists who love and are grace centred. Let us honour what we ourselves are good at, let us honour ourselves as teachers and then let us humbly help others to see themslves through the Honour of Grace.
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