Like I said before and I'll say again, my goal is to love, encourage, motivate, exhort and challenge all of my students relentlessly and unconditionally. I am a Bible believing, Jesus loving, born again Christian and I know that some who read this will judge me and immediately want to shut their minds and hearts to what I have to say because of that. I try hard to love and accept everyone. I'm just asking my readers to be tolerant and open to what I have to say. I see it work wonders every day. My principal sees it work well and tells me. My students and parents tell me it works well.
I had a student just yesterday tell me before class that she was going to get home schooled if she didn't improve this year. She told that her mom had talked to her the night before and complemented her on her improvement and growth. Her mom asked her what the cause of it was. My student told her that it was because of me... my motivational talks, teaching her how to learn... teaching her more than math. She told me that her mom told her to tell me THANK YOU. I told her that I cared about her and was proud of her and wanted the best for her.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self seeking. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always hopes, always trusts, and always perseveres. Love never fails."
My definition of love comes from the author of it. This is the standard that I evaluate myself by throughout my day. I fail every day living up to this standard but I would rather aim high and miss. I seek God's help to love all of my students... judge me if you want for saying that but it is the truth. I need His help. I can't do it on my own. Like I said before, HOPE is huge is all of this. When I feel myself getting impatient I know that I have slipped into the dark place of expectation. This is where my selfish needs are not being met and so sadly, I feel fully justified in being rude or impatient. I really like how love starts off being defined as patient because this is the first place I feel myself mess up on when I am dealing with someone on a self-centered basis.
"Perfect love casts out all fear."
I haven't counted for myself, but I've heard it said that the Bible talks about fear 365 time. So it begs the question, ...WHY? I think one obvious reason is that we have a lot of things we could be afraid of. There are all kinds of reasons to fear. These range from environment to government to wars to natural disasters to diseases to crime to all kinds of relational issues and the list would go on and on. In the midst of all of the fears and turmoil there stands this promise, "Perfect love casts out all fear." and I am so grateful for this promise. When I act in unloving ways, I make it difficult for my students to be successful. I know this for a fact! I have a hard time thinking at my best when I'm emotional in a negative way and fear can be a very powerful emotion. I want my students to be fearless as they attack problems. I want to push my students to the edge of their comfort and knowledge repeatedly so they can learn to thrive there. Fear sucks the live out of learning and problem solving and even doing routine skills. I am sad to say but I have seen this first had with my own children as I deal with them in an unloving manner. I am thankful for forgiveness and grace.
The second reason I believe fear is talked about so many times in the Bible is because we need reminders. I forget things all the time. I need continual reminders. I think for a lot of people worry and fear come pretty easily. I want to live in such a way in my classroom as to remove all of my students fears when they are there. There is the truth that a little 'healthy' fear is a good thing, but I would hope that that is really a fear of disappointing me. If my students only learn ONE thing I want it to be that I love and care about them and want the best for them. I've had students that hardly ever show up and have no chance of passing my class, but when they walk into my classroom or I see them in the hall, I tell them "Hi" and ask how they are doing. I tell them how I am glad to see them. I pray for them. I don't want my level of kindness to be related to their performance on the last test. I want them to know that I care about them unconditionally. I hope they do as they see it demonstrated relentlessly.
Day 6
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