But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true–it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. 1 John 2:27
She’ll probably never know the full impact she had on me. School had been a struggle. It wasn’t that I couldn’t learn, but school just seemed so boring and uninteresting to me. It seemed I had found myself in a cycle of defeat. My boredom lead to pour performance, which lead to pour grades, which lead to me feeling like a failure at school and that I just couldn’t be a “good student.” While my brother was always making the honor role, I was making the detention list.
All that changed however that 5th grade year. I’ll never forget meeting her for the first time. The school year had already started when my parents moved to the next county over. We were enrolled in a new school and I remember so vividly being introduced to her in the hall. Her warm smile began to take away the nervousness I was feeling. There was something about the way she greeted me that made me feel special, and not to mention, she was pretty. 🙂 She then led me to the classroom and introduced me to the other students. I’ll never forget how accomplished I felt after making the “B” honor role for the first time in my life. Ms. Blackman went out of her way to make learning fun and to make each of her students feel special. I’ll always say without hesitation that Ms. Blackman, was without a doubt, my favorite teacher. She helped me believe that I could learn and accomplish anything I put my heart and mind too.
In Genesis Chapter 12 Abram was getting to know a new teacher too, the “Voice of God.” That Voice told him to leave Haran and head to Canaan, “The Promise Land” and so he went. He had no past history with this new Teacher, but something in him knew it was right and that he had to follow. As he arrived in the land of Canaan, his first stop was at a place called “Moreh” which in Hebrew means “Teacher.” It was there that Abram offered his first sacrifice to the God he was just getting to know and learning to trust.
Today, you and I have been given the Holy Spirit who has promised to guide us into “All Truth.” We can trust this Teacher, because He will never lead us in the wrong direction. All we have to do is be willing to follow. The more we learn to trust and follow Him, the more our confidence grows in our ability to hear His voice.
How fitting on this “Teacher Appreciation Week” to say “thank you” to the “Best Teacher of All Time!” Let me encourage you today to keep your heart open to Him, and let Him continue to teach you and guide you along the way.
I too have had several teachers in my life that have really made a difference. Thank you for sharing this, a good time to remember that God did put people in my life to help me along the way and help me to realize that I was really his child and worth something in a very dysfunctional home.
I am also very grateful for this Godly teachers in public schools today who make a difference in quiet ways as they are not allowed to share their faith. I have grandchildren in the public school system and I always pray for them and their teachers