Faithful Blogger

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Prayerful Teaching is Laboring for the Lord

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.


                                                  Matthew 11:27-29 (NIV)



Prayer and Meditation

There are days when I have doubts about my call as a teacher, days when I am weary, burdened, and broken, days when I do not want to labor for the Lord.  Teaching can be challenging, heart wrenching, and even heartbreaking.  Help me to accept the fact I was not called to teaching to serve myself an easy life.  I was called to serve the Lord, to serve and care for his most innocent children.  Let me learn from your example and be gentle and humble of heart as I accept my calling as teacher and labor for the sake of for your precious children. 

Prayerful Teaching in Action

  • Stay away from occasions and places where you come in contact with grumblers and complainers. They will only make you feel your labors are in vain and bring down your spirit.  If they are in the teacher’s lunch room, find another place to eat.  If it is the teacher in the classroom next door, always greet the teacher with a smile and a positive statement.

  • Determine what you can do to bring a climate of joy serenity to your classroom.  Start small with a realistic action plan with a goal of implementing just one or two actions.  Set up the plan with a timeline.  Make sure your action plan and timeline is realistic.


  • Pause as you close your classroom door before going home for the day. Give yourself a moment of silence to praise God with this short prayer stem, “Thank you, Lord, for calling me today to labor among your most precious children. Thank you, Lord, for allowing/giving me the experience of…. (Mention one or more joys you experienced during the day.)


  • Celebrate success of your labors every day.  Make it a habit to close the day or the hour by stating two or three or four things that went well.  These can be general or very specific.  Perhaps two can be contributed by the students and two contributed by you.  Another option: Appoint a student to be on “success outlook” for the day.  It is that student’s job to look for successes and reiterate one or two successes at the end of the day.  You will always be on the outlook to add the names of students who may need extra encouragement.  Example:  I noticed (state name) was extremely attentive today and I am sure (he/she) learned a lot.  A follow-up would be to appoint that student to be on “success outlook” the next day.


  • Reach out to those who can support you and help you in your labors.  Look into community resources.  Do not forget parents and students.  Every little assist helps you build connections with others and allows others to connect with you.  It is always interesting to survey students and ask them how they can be classroom/teacher assistants. 


Challenge of the Week

Label a folder 2015-16 School Year.  Place in the folder anything that encourages you in your calling as teacher.  It may be notes from parents or students.  It may be a saying you have clipped or copied.  It may be an index card you dated and jotted down something that went well or something a co-worker or student said to lift you up.  It may even be a copied artifact of something a student did exceptionally well.  You determine what goes in the folder.  When you have doubts about your labors, prayerfully dig into the folder and enjoy the fruits of your labor.


God Bless and Prayerful Teaching,

Elizabeth A. Wink
prayerfulteaching@gmail.com



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