The following is a reprint of an earlier post that many of our recipients did not receive due to technical difficulties.
President Ronald Reagan used that phrase in 1986 when he awarded Guy Doud the distinction of National Teacher of the Year. In the presentation, honoring not only Doud but all teachers, Reagan went on: “Your very smile or frown can heal or pierce a heart. Yours are a hundred lives, a thousand lives. Yours the pride of loving them. The sorrow too. Your patient work, your touch make you the god of hope that fills their souls with dreams—to make those dreams come true.”
Beautiful thoughts focused on the power of the teacher. Probably most readers of these lines can call to mind the face, smile, touch, and words of some teacher(s) who impacted you in ways immeasurable—usually for good, sometimes for bad. But a good teacher, who can overstate their worth?
The Bible affords us insight into the work and worth of teaching and teachers. First, some in the Body of Christ, His Church, have been specially and spiritually gifted by God’s Spirit as teachers. (Romans 12:6) In fact, if a man would seek to be a pastor, he must be “apt to teach.” (I Tim. 3:2) But all mature believers, whether gifted by the Holy Spirit as teachers or not, should be taught sound doctrine so that all can in turn teach new believers—or other maturing members of His church—truths they have learned. (II Tim. 2:2) Paul instructs Pastor Titus, who labored in ministry on the isle of Crete, that he should carefully speak sound doctrine to aged men and women as well as to younger men and women. Specifically, Paul says that the aged women should be “teachers of good things…that they may teach the younger women.” (Titus 2:3,4) At some station in life, we are all teachers: at home, in the school, at work, at church, or in any other place where we are relating to others.
Teaching is teamwork. An organist was giving a concert years ago when the organ then was a large pump organ, with bellows backstage to provide air for the pipes. The organist obviously pleased the audience, which rewarded him with generous applause after each piece. Coming to the last number on the program, the musician announced, “I am now going to play…” and announced the number. As he sat down and began the piece with a robust gesture—with arms and hands landing on the keys—the audience held its breath, waiting for the grand music. But there was only silence. Finally, a voice from backstage insisted: “Say ‘we’!” It was a not-so-subtle reminder that any worthwhile artistic offering is a team effort. One pounds and pumps; the other works the bellows. So with the work and worth of the effective teacher. We must first be taught before we can teach. It is not a one-man production. Never overlook the work of those who have preceded you, or of those who accompany you in your efforts.
A violinist was appointed as a professor of music at a prominent university in California. When asked about the change of direction in his career, the violinist said: “Violin playing is a perishable art. It must be passed on as a personal skill; otherwise it is lost.” Paul said it this way to Pastor Timothy: “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (II Tim. 2:2)
Perhaps the best teachers are those who are creative, and do not lecture or use Power Points but make powerful points. One such teacher made an impression upon some junior high school girls who were “kissing” the restroom mirrors, leaving fresh lipstick marks for the janitor to remove. Each night, the maintenance man would remove the marks, only to find new ones appear the next day. The principal, hearing of the situation, decided something had to be done. She called a meeting with all the girls in the bathroom, with the maintenance man present. She shared with the girls that their misbehavior was giving the custodian headaches, as he had to clean the marks from the mirrors every day. The lecture was met with yawning disinterest from the assembled girls. To demonstrate the difficulty the girls were causing the janitor, the principal asked him to show the perpetrators just how much effort it took to clean up after their messes. So the custodian took out a long-handled squeegee mop, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror. After that creative lesson—taught in a most unusual place in a very unorthodox way—there were no more lipstick marks left by the little princesses on the mirrors! The person who shared this incident concluded: “There are teachers, and there are educators.”
Howie Hendricks, a legendary professor for 50 years at Dallas Theological Seminary, said, “The art of teaching is the art of getting excited about the right thing.” No Bible teacher, pastor or not, should ever be boring! No schoolteacher of any subject should ever be boring. Creative messages and innovative methods should guarantee that there will always be a demand for good teachers, who will ever be “guardians of dreams.”
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:20)
YOU and GOD 