{"id":1789,"date":"2013-08-23T03:01:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T03:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2013-11-01T20:45:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T20:45:52","slug":"a-word-to-christian-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=1789","title":{"rendered":"A word to Christian teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the Christian teacher: You are in the middle of a war zone. You may have a great\u00a0group of students this year, but the enemy would love nothing\u00a0more than to undermine your effectiveness as an educator and godly role model and disrupt your students’ learning and positive growth. I want to share with you some\u00a0strategies that I used during my 32-year career to deal with\u00a0the devil’s\u00a0schemes, both in\u00a0Christian and public schools. (Notice the emphasis\u00a0for #s 1-4 is on prayer!)<\/p>\n

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  1. Pray <\/b>in your classroom before the year begins. First Timothy 2:1 declares, \u201cFirst of all\u2026PRAY.\u201d For many of you,\u00a0the school year has already started, but it\u2019s not too late to pray over your year. Take the time to walk around your classroom and pray concerning your students, their parents, and all of your interactions with them this year. Pray over each desk or table in your room. They represent the students who will be sitting there. I always brought oil and placed it inconspicuously on or under each desk\u2014including my own\u2014as I prayed for\u00a0the school year.<\/li>\n
  2. Pray<\/b> outside your building before the school year, on a Saturday, or after school hours—and\u00a0walk the entire campus and pray for the classes and administrators. If you have a like-minded colleague on staff, have them join you, or perhaps you have a prayer partner outside of school who would be glad to participate.<\/li>\n
  3. Arrive early enough\u00a0every morning to pray<\/b> over the desks in your room representing each student and family. Let the Holy Spirit lead you as you pray for each one.<\/li>\n
  4. Before or after\u00a0hours, as the opportunity arises, pray<\/b> inside the building over each classroom and area. I stayed late at school often on Friday nights\u00a0to plan for the next week, prepare materials, and grade papers\u00a0(frequently leaving the building\u00a0as the custodians locked up at 10:30 or 11 PM!) and used that “unpopulated” time periodically to pray through the halls, especially when the school-day atmosphere was tense or chaotic. It bore the fruit of peace for my building. In fact, after I retired, a reading specialist in the building asked, \u201cDid you used to put your hands on the walls and pray when you stayed late here?\u201d I responded, \u201cGuilty.\u201d To my surprise, she replied, \u201cWell, I sure wish someone would start doing it again! We need it!\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Treat<\/strong> your students the way you would want someone else to treat your child. Be firm and\u00a0keep your expectations high, but also be respectful and honest with your students. If you mess up, apologize with sincerity and then keep on teaching.<\/li>\n
  6. Ask the Lord to give you honest strategies<\/strong> to streamline all the paperwork that\u00a0threatens to \u00a0bury you, but resist any temptation to cut corners in a dishonest way. God will give you wisdom so that you can effectively manage it all with integrity.<\/li>\n
  7. Watch out for the malicious gossip-fests that play out with many staff members or parents. You are an “epistle read of men” (see 2 Corinthians 3:2)\u00a0and your<\/strong> words<\/strong> are powerful, and as James 3:10 says, \u201cFrom the same mouth come\u00a0both <\/i>blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.\u201d<\/li>\n
  8. When you are supposed to be teaching, teach<\/i>!<\/strong> I was amazed during my career that some people, hired to teach, felt comfortable with habitually giving quick instructions, and then, sitting back,\u00a0just worked on paperwork (and more recently, surfed the net or played with their iPhones) the rest of the time. Don\u2019t let this describe your work ethic! If you have minimal interaction with students, if you provide negligible monitoring of their work, then behavior incidents will <\/i>escalate. As a result, your students will develop (or master!) an attitude of who cares?<\/em>. Morale and achievement will deteriorate. But if you want your students to care, act like you<\/i> care and over time, they will be positively affected by your close involvement. Simply walking the class while you teach or as the students work is an extremely effective tool. And give eye-contact to every kid as you teach. Nothing says I\u2019m afraid of you <\/i>or I couldn’t care less about you<\/em> as blatantly as avoiding eye-contact! Yes, you can<\/i> sit and do paperwork every now and then; just keep interaction with students your top priority. As for surfing the net or using your iPhone\u2014do it on your own time.<\/li>\n
  9. I\u2019ve had several dream classes; I\u2019ve had the proverbial \u201cclass from hell\u201d more than a time or two; and I\u2019ve had every type of class in between. And each year, even with the best of groups, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to get stressed, angry, worried, or wonder what on earth am I doing in the education field<\/i>?. So will you. And the best strategy at times like that is to cast your cares on the Lord<\/strong>. Even though you\u2019re<\/i> in charge of a large number of students, He<\/i> is in charge of you\u00a0<\/i>and He\u00a0cares for you, as the Amplified Bible says, affectionately and watchfully (see 1 Peter 5:7).<\/li>\n
  10. How do you cast your care on the Lord?<\/strong> Here are some strategies<\/strong>:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n