"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8
I hate the song, but I love the Bible verse.
I was doing a lot of thinking and praying while on a walk with Chuck tonight. I started out thinking about some of the things that have frustrated us this week at school. We hoped to take the opportunity of splitting schools to really talk about our culture and what is important to us and the unified message we want to send to our students as a whole staff. We didn't have an opportunity to have these conversations as a staff, but I asked myself what three things I wanted to focus on this year. I reflected for all of 10 seconds about what three things I want to send a message to my students when immediately I thought of the above verse from Micah. These three things are what I want to live this year in my classroom.
1. I want to seek justice in every decision that I make. I believe this means I need to be consistent and respectful in all situations.
2. I want to love mercy. I think this means I should always seek to know the story behind every student behavior. If a student makes a bad choice or does something inappropriate, I want to be just and teach them that there are consequences, but I also want to learn about the student and talk to them to find out why they made that choice. I may discover special circumstances, I may learn a new way to interact with that student, or it may be that they were legitimately just being stupid. Either way, I want to show the same mercy that God showed me when he saved me to my students.
3. I want to walk humbly. I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with good ideas. Even though I don't want to, I'm constantly comparing myself to other teachers because a very human part of me is terrified of not being perfect, not being the best, or being a failure. I have to remind myself constantly that lives are too important for God to let me ruin the lives of my students, especially if I am constantly seeking wisdom from the Holy Spirit. As I think about walking humbly, I think this means realizing that every good idea, every lesson, and every good thing that comes out of my mouth is really from God. The best lessons and best days I've ever had in the classroom have come when I've asked God for help rather than relying solely on myself. I want to give God the credit always! I have a hard time with this since I'm always seeking approval of "my" ideas. I think that if I truly work to give God all the glory and seek to teach the lessons in His way, then I will become the best teacher I can be - a million times better than I could ever hope to be on my own as a human without the power of the Holy Spirit. (I am in awe when I think about the intelligence of God and the complexity of science and mathematics. God created it, and I want to allow him to give me the best ways to share it with my students!)
I always thought the phrase "with your God," went with #3, but I've decided it should go with ALL 3. I certainly will fail at being perfectly just, perfectly merciful, and perfectly humble without God. I know that with his constant presence, I can be a just, merciful, and humble teacher, and that is my ultimate goal this year, and this is what I want my classroom culture to be.
I hate the song, but I love the Bible verse.
I was doing a lot of thinking and praying while on a walk with Chuck tonight. I started out thinking about some of the things that have frustrated us this week at school. We hoped to take the opportunity of splitting schools to really talk about our culture and what is important to us and the unified message we want to send to our students as a whole staff. We didn't have an opportunity to have these conversations as a staff, but I asked myself what three things I wanted to focus on this year. I reflected for all of 10 seconds about what three things I want to send a message to my students when immediately I thought of the above verse from Micah. These three things are what I want to live this year in my classroom.
1. I want to seek justice in every decision that I make. I believe this means I need to be consistent and respectful in all situations.
2. I want to love mercy. I think this means I should always seek to know the story behind every student behavior. If a student makes a bad choice or does something inappropriate, I want to be just and teach them that there are consequences, but I also want to learn about the student and talk to them to find out why they made that choice. I may discover special circumstances, I may learn a new way to interact with that student, or it may be that they were legitimately just being stupid. Either way, I want to show the same mercy that God showed me when he saved me to my students.
3. I want to walk humbly. I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with good ideas. Even though I don't want to, I'm constantly comparing myself to other teachers because a very human part of me is terrified of not being perfect, not being the best, or being a failure. I have to remind myself constantly that lives are too important for God to let me ruin the lives of my students, especially if I am constantly seeking wisdom from the Holy Spirit. As I think about walking humbly, I think this means realizing that every good idea, every lesson, and every good thing that comes out of my mouth is really from God. The best lessons and best days I've ever had in the classroom have come when I've asked God for help rather than relying solely on myself. I want to give God the credit always! I have a hard time with this since I'm always seeking approval of "my" ideas. I think that if I truly work to give God all the glory and seek to teach the lessons in His way, then I will become the best teacher I can be - a million times better than I could ever hope to be on my own as a human without the power of the Holy Spirit. (I am in awe when I think about the intelligence of God and the complexity of science and mathematics. God created it, and I want to allow him to give me the best ways to share it with my students!)
I always thought the phrase "with your God," went with #3, but I've decided it should go with ALL 3. I certainly will fail at being perfectly just, perfectly merciful, and perfectly humble without God. I know that with his constant presence, I can be a just, merciful, and humble teacher, and that is my ultimate goal this year, and this is what I want my classroom culture to be.
Vaya con Dios. Go with God, my sister. He is so delighted by your desire to please Him in the way you live and teach. Thanks for sharing, as always.
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