Teachers

Teachers 

At the end of your life you will groan,

when your flesh and body are spent.

You will say, “How I hated discipline!

How my heart spurned correction!

I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors.

I have come to the brink of utter ruin…”

Proverbs 5:11-14

My chosen profession is teaching, and in one capacity or another, I have been a teacher for more than 40 years: Elementary, Junior High and Senior High school, Community college, University, Seminary, homeschool and Sunday School.  Teaching brings great joy, but it inflicts its share of heartbreak and sorrow as well.  Every school year, there is always at least one student who does not want to learn.

The reasons why kids reject instruction are as varied as the students themselves.  Broken homes, drugs, disabilities, family problems, gangs, homelessness – the list could go on and on.  Often the student tries to grab control of the classroom so that no one else can learn either.  Eventually they are suspended and may even be expelled or sent to an alternative school.  The teacher is left with a feeling of failure and the nagging question – “What else could I have tried…”

As we come to the end of the summer break, teachers around the country are gearing up for another school year – made even more difficult by the COVID19 pandemic.  Please pray for Virginia’s teachers and administrators.  They face a difficult task and are in need of our prayer support.

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It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

The United Methodist Hymnal No. 352