Teachers

I'm pretty sure all of us have our favorite teachers. If you think about it though.....our teachers aren't just the men and women we had for our school years, but all our life we have teachers. All our life we are learners.

I've had plenty of teachers in my life. I can't say I had a favorite school teacher growing up because I wasn't the best student. A funny is that when I was in 5th grade we used to have to read books and do oral book reports. We had to stand up front and give an assessment of the book we read, to the class. This is the funny part....or parts. Back then I hated reading. (Now, that's NoT the case). So....I read the front cover, back cover, and a page in the middle of the book and made up the rest. The day came to give my report and I was hoping my teacher never read it cause I would have failed for sure, but I stood up front. Then, I had gum in my mouth.....which was a no-no back in the day. My teacher spotted the gun and told me about it I'm front of the class. Then I had to give this crazy made up report. So I spoke and lied all the way through. Then she started asking questions about the book and I had to make up more stuff. I did pass.....barely and I was thankful she never read my book and bought most of my nonsense. Was this the right thing to do.....of course not, but for a kid who wanted a boyfriend more than books.....I didn't care.

Teachers are all around us. I have plenty of friends who teach school, but think about parents. Parents are the first teachers we have. Then we have kids (when we were kids)  who know more than us and help tutor us in our areas of weakness. We have music teachers, coaches who teach sports, church teachers who study and teach every Sunday......all to those who want to learn. We have jobs and have a teacher to help us learn the ropes.

Everywhere we go and whatever we do, there is always someone who knows more than we do. There is always something we can learn from others. We are called to be humble and teachable. What does this look like? Well....I would say to be humble is to recognize I don't know it all. To accept help and direction from others who know better than me without an attitude or arrogance. Being teachable is that we recognize we need to be taught things no matter our age or what we have experienced. Asking questions and going to those who know better than we do is key.

I have an elder friend at my church that I call on to help me learn. He is an excellent teacher and I know I am learning a lot from him, as are others. He spends time preparing lessons and making sure what he teaches is truth. If I have questions, I can ask and he helps me to understand. I have come to appreciate this man in a mighty way.

I have many people in my life right now that teach me. In fact I have learned a lot from my pastor, my mentor, my friends, my coworkers, my family, and especially my husband who without meeting him 21 years ago I wouldn't be humble or teachable today. He brought me to Jesus and I've never been the same.

As Christians, Jesus tells us to go into the world and make disciples. What this means is we have to be taught and be a humble learner to be able to teach others and make a disciple for Jesus. This is not
an easy task, but it is a command. We have to know what we are teaching others, same as our teachers had to know what they were teaching us. It comes full circle. Learning from a good teacher is giving us the ability to teach someone else down the road. Then they in turn, can do the same.

We are never to old to be teachable. We will never be totally mature in this life as that maturity is reserved for heaven. All we can do is keep loving forward and giving God all the glory for what we are able to learn from our teachers.