Today's Devotional

 

March 25, 2008

                                                                                         

Subject:  All Things To All People

1 Corinthians 9:22 "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

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Yesterday I was back at work after a week of spring break.  It was one of those days where you're glad God is God.  The issues that I have to deal with at times seem overwhelming until I remind myself of this fundamental truth. 

To my wife I recounted a few of the issues that I had to deal with on my first day back and realized, this is usually how it is.  I had forgotten due to the break from school. 

One of my students lost her 5 year-old sister during the break.  I remembered fondly playing with her young sister during one of our summer camps last year.  My student was a class leader and as I talked to her about the lost and watched her continue to grieve, I was amazed at her strength and wondered if I would hold up as well under such a tough lost at that age.  I really felt like a minister of compassion as I tried to console her.  

As the day turned, I overheard one of my cadets explaining to her class leader how she couldn't do one of the physical exercises that day.  Later I saw her in the hall and asked her about it.  This was another teen pregnancy.  As she began to explain how she had made such a terrible mistake, she told me that she did not plan on keeping "it."  I immediately challenged her to "stop making mistakes."  I told her that mistakes are opportunities for us to make corrections, not for us to make more mistakes.  Realizing that this was my atheist cadet, I let her know that every child was a gift and has a plan.  I let her know that she might not understand that now, but she would later.  I felt like a minister of truth to her.

Then I turned to the cafeteria and boy was I all over the place.  Kids forgot that we have rules at school; from sagging pants to unshaven faces, I was guaranteeing students that they would not return to the classroom without making those corrections.  I was ministering discipline.

Teaching is really a tough profession and I think it's tougher when you care about those being taught.  The emotions of such a job pull you daily in a hundred different directions.  It's the perfect job for a Christian.

God has equipped us to be all things to all people.  Yesterday that was reality for me and today I head back to school knowing that it's all that "I might save some."   

Carlen