Wednesday's Word of Wisdom

After prayerful consideration, I have decided to start a series called "Wednesday's Word of Wisdom" that will feature a weekly scripture verse and personal devotion.  I am very excited about this new adventure and hope you enjoy it.

Before I jump right on in, I want to explain briefly why I feel the urge to do this.  At a very early age, I knew I was called into ministry.  However, I knew off hand that even though I loved to do foreign mission trips and such that God was not calling me to be a missionary or even to be a pastor's wife.  He was calling me to work with children in my community.  Therefore, I have filled my life with all avenues of working with children from babysitting all the way to coaching cheer.  I started my blog a few months ago in order to remember the good and bad times and share with others my journey.  The past few weeks I really have felt God calling me to do this weekly series.  I don't create a lot of things therefore I don't have a TPT or TN store, although I love to try to win stuff from giveaways I don't participate as a host to any events, and I'm not the best teacher so I don't have all the rights and wrongs to teaching but I do have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ who is leading me in the journey of teaching 1st grade. 

I pray I do not drive any of my readers away, but instead I pray I encourage you as you serve as an important role model to children all over the world.  I pray the verses God leads me to each week are ones that not only apply to areas that I need but ones that you need at certain times throughout the year.  I pray that from being open in my spiritual journey as a teacher that you can relate and be motivated to keep up the good race!

For the first week, I feel that it is only appropriate to start with my theme verse for the blog:

 

Image Source: babybeblessed.blogspot.com

This verse was written on a train that use to hang above the toilet in my bathroom as a child.  (I know a weird place for it, but it must have been a good place because I still remember it.)  Therefore, I saw it a lot, because everyone has to go to the bathroom.  I use to think that this verse only applies to parents, but when I began my career as a teacher I realized that it applies to anyone that plays an influential role on a child's life.

As teachers, we spend almost 7 plus hours a day with our students.  For some kids, they spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents during a school year.  Therefore, they are obtaining more training from the teacher than they are from their parents.  It is our duty to do exactly what this verse says and train the children up right so that they know what is right from wrong and are able to make right choices in life.  This is a huge responsibility but with the help of God we are able to do it!

Even though religion and education are suppose to be separated, you don't have to teach religion to the kids in order to apply this verse.  Instill good manners, show them right from wrong, be an encourager, and demonstrate how to be good citizens are just a few of the ways that you can push a child in the right direction.  As most of us are on summer breaks, now is a good time to pause from worrying about your classroom setup, working to incorporate the Common Core Standards, or stressing over what challenges you are going to have this year.  Use your time to begin thinking of how you are going to help your students head in the right direction and what changes you can make to be more of a positive influence on the students, faculty, and staff at your school.  

I pray that God gives you a peace about the upcoming year and ideas that will let His light shine through you in your school!

Elizabeth L.