This past week, I had the privilege of seeing some more family, only this time it was on my mom's side of the family. My cousin and her husband have four amazing children who I got to play with and wrestle with and just have an amazing time with. They were so much fun and I especially enjoyed the 9, 8, and 2 and a half year old. The baby was a very nice baby but they're just not as much fun in my opinion haha I'm sure next year he'll be a blast too though as he's able to walk and talk a little bit. The two older ones I've watched grow up a certain amount, I was there when the second one was born and though I've moved far away since, I always come home once a year or fairly close to that in order to see them. They still remember me, and even the two and a half year old who didn't remember me raised his arms up when I said his name excitedly so that really made my day. Those kids as well as kids in general give me so much joy.
It is such a blessing and an honor to be a teacher today. People usually say we need more male teachers in the primary grades when I say I'm a kindergarten teacher. I generally agree with this notion but would add a few cautions. Just because someone is a man does not make them a good candidate for teaching elementary school. Many times I joke that I'm not nurturing enough to be a primary teacher but I think there is quite a bit of nurturing within me, otherwise I'd be a lot angrier every day. One of the criticisms I've received from my principal is that I'm too nice and my tolerance for noise is too high. I'd rather err on that side than have a completely silent room there, they are 5 and 6 years old after all, right?
This school year has proven much tougher than last school year. The group of students I have are quite the handful I have to say. In spite of this, I find myself itching to get back in the classroom and ready to hug on some of my kiddos. Of course, I am not nor do I pretend to be their parent or anything like that, but I do my best to provide a safe environment that is loving and welcoming to all of my students. I realize it's not PC necessarily to hug my kids, but if they come up and hug me I'm not going to turn them away. Yes, I try and do the sideways hug that my principal suggested at a faculty meeting, but even that is better than nothing if you ask me. It's difficult when I can tell that some of my students just need to be loved better at home. There aren't any signs of abuse that I can see so far, but you can just tell when someone and especially some kid has been loved well and when they haven't. Kids who are loved well are more confident when they grow up and more willing to take risks. I don't have any stats to prove this but it's just common sense if you ask me. Don't get me wrong, I care deeply about educating my students, but I dare say it's of primary importance to make them feel safe and loved. Without that foundation, you're not going to get very far with them. Some use fear as a motivator, I've even heard a fellow teacher say that the students should respect her because they fear her, but I just don't think that's as good a motivation as love.
The same can probably be said for our view of God. If we live in constant fear of God, we may find temporary motivation there. If we live in an understanding of God's love for us though, I think that motivation will go much further in terms of our obedience to His calling of us. The book of Proverbs repeatedly tell us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom so there is a need for a certain level of fear to be sure. Many would say that the fear that is being talked about there is more of an awe and respect but I would argue against that line of reasoning. I'm pretty sure if God showed up on earth in all His glory, it would scare the pants off everyone. That being said, God calls us to love Him as He first loved us.
Once we show the proper fear and respect of a most holy God, we are called near to the throne of grace. We don't deserve grace, no works would ever earn it, but we are given it. For some reason, a lot of people stop there. We are made in His image to do good works though, not to rest on our laurels and just soak up the grace for ourselves. He prepared good works in advance for us to do, we need to step into those good works, not just worry about our own situation. For those needing help in how to do good works, I might point you in the direction of reading The Barefoot Church or better yet, taking your small group through The Barefoot Church Primer. It has a lot of great suggestions for starting in the area of serving and moving from great intentions to actually doing something.
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