With many school environments back in full swing, I thought we might provide some encouragement and inspiration for everyone involved in the education of our children.

Jeff Foxworthy: “How do you know you are a teacher?”

• You want to slap the next person who says “Must be nice to work 8-3 and have summers off.”
• You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
• You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

Crista McAuliffe, the teacher astronaut who perished in the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in 1986 summed up her profession in these words: “I touch the future – I teach.”

What an awesome privilege we have in shaping the future through the impact we have on students.

King Solomon said that a farmer does not withhold seed because of what he cannot control, but does what he can and trusts God for the rest (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6). We do not want to focus on the obstacles before us and miss the opportunity to sow seeds. Keep casting your bread upon the water, you are making a difference.

Martina McBride would say: “Teach them anyway.”

Moses made it clear that providing a spiritual foundation for our children is the responsibility of parents (Deuteronomy 6). As parents we are to model and teach in every-day life the spiritual values we desire to see in our children.

A brief excerpt from the poem To Be Educated, by Carolyn Caines demonstrates the importance of a how education and faith are related:

If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders the universe, I have not been educated.

However, if one day I see the world as God sees it and come to know Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and glorify Him by fulfilling His purpose for me, then I have been educated.

Jesus Christ taught that the “one who is fully taught will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40) In addition to the formal, academic instruction students need, we do not want to forget what author John Ortberg calls the hidden curriculum. Whether you are in public, private, or home education, you are doing more than filling minds – you are forming lives to be like you. As a local church shepherd, I would not want to do what I do without divine assistance. For all of you involved in education, we petition God for the grace, strength, and wisdom you need. God bless you.