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"SCHOOL IS NEVER REALLY OUT!"
My thanks to Ladd Bower who forwarded the following insight and advice from Ron Hutchcraft entitled "A Thousand Teachers." June is a great time to learn this lesson from the world around us:
"Kids count the days. Teachers count the days. Principals count the days. Until everybody can shout those happy words, 'School's Out!' Bumper stickers warn drivers to be extra careful for the same reason: 'School's out.' Graduations are real milestones because you don't ever have to go back to that school if you don't want to. But the truth is that this 'School's out' thing is actually a myth. Or at least it should be.
There's a sense in which God doesn't ever want us to consider 'school' as being 'out,' because He's got so much to teach us and so many teachers through whom He wants to send it. Smart people are looking for teachers for the rest of their life.
Listen to how God describes people that He considers wise: 'Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that come from wisdom ... The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive.'
Humble people are wise people. Wise people are humble people because they're teachable people. An arrogant person is closed - unteachable. For a wise person, school is never really out because they realize how much they have to learn from almost every person they meet.
A person who realizes that virtually every person he meets has something to teach him is an emotional and spiritual millionaire. In fact, God brings into our lives people through whom He wants to teach us things we need to know. Humility becomes more concrete when you think of it, at least in part, as teachability. Are you a teachable person?
*When we meet a new person, do we talk mostly about ourselves or do we let them tell us about themselves?
*Do we approach new people, asking ourselves, 'What can I learn from this person?'
*Do you welcome the opportunity to meet people who are from a different background, who have a different kind of personality, from a different denominational, racial, generational background?
*And how about our response to the suggestions we get, and the ideas, even the criticism of the people close to us? Are we closed or are we open to what they see and what they say?
Many of the most important teachers we'll ever have in our life are not the ones we'll necessarily meet in a classroom, as important as they are. It will be the people God brings into our everyday life with something He knows we need to know.
And the more teachers we welcome into our lives, the wiser we're going to be."
May each of us recognize the teachers God sends us today!
Grace and peace,
Susan
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Questions
about Middletown United Methodist Church should be sent to the Church Office. |
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7108 Fern Circle · Middletown, MD 21769
voice: (301) 371-5550 · fax: (301) 473-8090
TTY: (301) 473-9892 |
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