“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”~Matthew 10: 37-39
If we were to walk into the classroom of any Teacher at any given point during the school year, we can bet that he will be focused on one particular facet of his work amidst the torrent of many others. It could be something as little as a mini-lesson on the capitalization of proper nouns or as big as his classroom management plan. There are millions of parts to our work that require our complete focus at any given time throughout the day.
In today’s reading, Jesus reminds us that our primary focus must always be Him. This is a difficult task for us Teachers because it is so very difficult for us to remember our God when our colleagues, our curriculums, and our students are constantly calling for our attention. When we add our home lives into that mix, the image of Christ in our lives becomes a bit more blurred.
The danger in life comes when we loose sight of our primary celestial focus and replace it with another. When we replace God with our planning, our ambitions, our students and/or our families, we place inside our electricity boxes a current-less thread of yarn as opposed to a never ending battery or life. Without Him, we simply cannot function.
The same goes for our Teaching. When we allow ourselves to be carried away from Jesus by the tides of academics, classroom management, and even our student-teacher relationships, we can only drift so far out to sea before we become frightened and weary. After a while, we get tired of treading water and we simply cannot go on without His mighty hand to bring us back to the shore.
Today, whether you find yourself next to Jesus on the shore or floating away from His sight, find Him in your work at every possible moment. I guarantee your Teaching will become more effective.
Live Jesus in our hearts forever!
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