“Do not be
terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua
1:9)
Discouragement, Murmuring, Gossip, Condemnation and
Judgment are the names of the family of demons which have inhabited and haunted
the hearts and minds of educators in public schools for way too long. Praise
God that Jesus is a ghost buster and that He dwells in us!
The father and leader of all these destructive spirits is
Discouragement. Several times in her educational career he has had Melissa Yates
by the throat and just about snuffed out her professional life. Has Discouragement ever had a hold of the
wick of your professional candle? Have
you ever felt like you are being spiritually suffocated by the increased burden
of responsibility, seemingly irrational decisions being made, or the general
atmosphere of godlessness where you work? Have you ever served a severely
troubled student or group of students who are determined to steal your joy and
discourage you? Many educators are in
the midst of these battles right now.
Melissa recently fought the biggest battle of her career
against Discouragement. She had taught resource special education classes for
more than twenty years. She was a master teacher. Every year Melissa made remarkable progress
with the most severely behaviorally and academically challenged students that
came to her school. Many reached grade
level and were placed into regular classes as a result of her work. Two years ago her school went to a full
inclusion model with no input from faculty or parents. All of the students she served were placed in
regular classrooms and so was she! She was now placed in multiple teachers’
classes and asked, like an interpreter, to translate all of the objectives in
ways that every special needs student could understand and make the required
progress to grade level.
She felt like someone had stomped the brakes on the
vehicle she had been driving at 70 miles an hour and then slammed the car in
reverse and put the pedal to the metal.
She was now being expected to stay on the road while driving backwards
at 70 miles an hour. While the political correctness air bag was hitting her in
the face, Discouragement grabbed the wheel and his family jumped in the back
seat hoping for a long ride. Murmuring
was encouraging Melissa to complain about the decision made and Gossip wanted
her to tell everyone what was going on and what a mistake it was. Condemnation and Judgment wanted her to hold
continual negative thoughts in her mind about the politicians, educational
gurus, and the district and campus leaders responsible for this decision. While this was going on, Discouragement’s
cousins, Resentment, Repressed Anger, and Grief jumped in the trunk.
Melissa was taken for a real demonic depression ride. She
was professionally car jacked. All the personal changes for improvement she had
been looking forward to implementing were run over and she abandoned them. She went from being a master teacher to a
mediocre inclusion teacher at best, due to all the junk in her trunk and seats.
She was carrying too much weight and became stiff-necked from looking
backwards.
God knew what was going on. He knew every gray hair hiding under the
colored hair on her head. He was maturing Melissa, helping her grow up. (Romans
5:3) Her identity, strength, joy, and trust is to be fully found in obedience
to God, not in what position she taught, what political or administrative
decisions were made, what program she was using, or even her students’
successes and failures. During this trial the Lord reminded Meliss who she
truly was - an OVERCOMER, the LIGHT of the classroom, the SALT of the
school. She learned the joy of the Lord
is to be her strength, not all these other things she had come to rely on for
identity, joy and strength where she worked.
God is such a great teacher but that was a difficult lesson! She wanted
to drop out!
The second year after these big changes, Melissa took her
professional “car”eer to the Holy Spirit auto spa. She recognized and started confessing and cleaning
out all the junk in her trunk and seats. In the name of Jesus she swept out
Discouragement and his ugly family members.
Jesus is driving Melissa’s professional car again this year and she has
invited Courage to sit beside her in the front seat. She is loading her trunk
and backseat with the fruit of the Spirit (peace, patience, love, kindness,
etc.). Melissa finally embraced her new
position. Jesus wants her to be the best
inclusion specialist she can be because her work is to always reflect His excellence.
GO JESUS!
.Prayer: Lord, thank you for driving our car-eers. Courage, thank you for sitting in the front
seat with us.
Application: Confess and repent of any junk you are carrying in
your professional trunk and seats right now.
Sharing: What was the
most discouraging thing you ever experienced in your career and how did God
help you overcome this
discouragement?
CLASSROOM
LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE!
(For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) #8
Prayerfully dependent,
K
PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement.
• Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray
May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.
Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools. CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school.
No comments:
Post a Comment