En Orden - #LaAventuraDeLaVida

Welcome to my time capsule. 😊 We are traveling back several years to meet a girl much like me, but far younger and more naive. I will be telling you her story through her eyes over the coming weeks and months. I hope you enjoy it and see the many ways her Savior has guided her every step of the way! All of my posts marked with #LaAventuraDeLaVida are a part of this ongoing series.

~ Dec 5, 2013 ~

My Father has been teaching me so much through what I have been teaching, but I think the most impactful realization that I have had has come in the past few weeks:

My students are not just minds. First and foremost, they are spirits, eternal and unimaginably precious. Secondly, they are souls. They are a wonderful mess of will and emotions, and my job is to help shape that through prayer and loving guidance. And lastly, they are minds, ready to learn the information I have to teach them.

In an America where standardized testing rules, colleges base everything on your GPA, and achievement determines worth, it is hard to remember that the mind is really the least important thing we need to teach (and this is coming from someone who thinks extensively and loves knowledge). I have always focused on the mind – in my school years, throughout college, and in my teaching. And I am so thankful I have had this chance to step back from that mindset and see that my primary goal is not the education of the mind. It’s the shaping of the soul to allow the spirit to be free to meet God.

Yes, these kids need to work on their English. Some much more than others. Yes, I am here to teach them our crazy, convoluted language. Yes, I will do my darndest to give them the best English education I can. But my students are not just minds. And if I only teach their minds, I have failed them. So my prayer every day is that they would see the love of Christ in me and learn to love Him more because they have seen Jesus with skin on. I frequently fail. Sometimes I get impatient; sometimes something slips off of my tongue before I realize it’s gone. But He who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it (Phil 1:6). I am being made holy (Heb 10:14). And more than that, I have been chosen (Col 3:2). For such a time as this.