Saturday, January 18, 2014

Battling Discouragement?

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.
      Go to www.one16pray.com for more information
      Go to www.ceai.org for more information (which will point you to the above address!)
      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page.
      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 (we have 205!)
      Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray
      Look for the prayer prompts on the 1:16 PM website or Facebook page.

May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry byclicking here.


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