What a great calling it is to be a Christian educator serving the Lord in the schools! Who else has such great opportunities on a daily basis for the Lord to use to touch so many lives (students, colleagues, parents) but educators? If I were to ask a Christian educator to name only ONE opportunity that made the greatest spiritual impact during his or her career, I wonder what would be shared? Having been an educator, I asked myself, what would I say? What ONE spiritual opportunity would I share?
Even though I could relate how educators prayed together fervently for the staff and students (beyond their contractual time) each Monday morning in my classroom (without students present) when I was a teacher and, in my office, when I was a principal, this would not be the ONE opportunity I would say made the greatest impact. Yes, these times were powerful! The presence of the Lord was there and prayers were answered, but this would not be the ONE thing.
I would not even talk about the time the Lord opened a door of opportunity to share after school with a colleague my testimony of how Christ radically changed my life when I received Him as my Savior. Nor would I relate how another colleague became saved after being asked one simple question, have you ever asked Jesus Christ into your life? And even though I could share about the most wonderful experience of a hurting teacher receiving Christ as her Savior the last 30 minutes during my principal career, this would not be the ONE.
What would I share? I prayerfully pondered and asked the Lord, “What was the ONE opportunity You did that made the greatest spiritual impact in my 33 years as an educator?” There were so many God-given opportunities! Which one? Above all the spiritual opportunities ONE definitely stood out that had influenced everything in my life at home and at school! Yes, this is the one!
Betty Thompson, a third-grade teacher who saw my worldly, lost, spiritual condition but still befriended me, shared 4 words with me the day I told her my nine-month-old son, Jack, was entering the hospital for the third time. The words, have faith in God, pierced my heart like a sharp two-edged sword as I quickly fled her presence with tears flowing. The course of my life had spiraled out of control and needed drastically changing. At the hospital a nurse shared what God had done in, for and through her. In addition, I read a Christian autobiography during that hospital stay which caused me to hunger and thirst to know Christ. After the Lord orchestrated and coordinated all those events and people, four days later I became radically saved, on-fire for Jesus Christ, and wanted others to come to know Him personally as their Savior, too. From that day on God and I went to work together looking for His doors of opportunity. My career changed to His career. What Would You Share?
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Myrna Brogdon
Los Fresnos, Texas
Comments