Hanging Up A Hat

Over the years we have all had the pleasure and displeasure of picking up and wearing different types of "hats."  Some of the hats we may have liked but others we didn't care for at all. Such as wearing the hat of being a spouse, sibling, friend, child, employee, employer, caregiver, parent, medical problem, abused, encourager, follower, and many other things. 

Some of these hats may be worn all the time while others are as seasonal as a rain or sun bonnet or ski cap. It doesn't matter if we love our current hat or not there comes a time when some hats have to be hung up. Such as the elder person who at last has to make the decision to give up their "hat" of being a licensed driver. This kind of decision is something we all face sooner or later. 

Today when I was at Bible study the Sunday School director for the kids ministry came up to me to ask a question. It was a question she has asked before over the last three years but today's answer was what was different. "Karen' she said. 'Do you think you can keep on teaching your preschool and kindergarten class?"  It was a question I had been asking myself but one I didn't want to deal with. Without hesitation but with plenty of tears I told her "no."

I couldn't believe I actually said 'no' to her. As we hugged and cried and hugged some more I kept telling her how sorry I was. I had been teaching small kids and some older ones too since I was an 8th grader myself. The only thing that was supposed to stop me from teaching was death itself. Even when I was disabled with epilepsy someone would pick me up and drive me to where I taught a Good News Fellowship Club at a local grade school.  For years I was a director for daily vacation bible school, craft leader, and teacher. 

However, currently with my additional new growth of cancer and increase in pain the tables were suddenly turning on me. It was time to hang up a hat I had worn over fifty years. One of my favorite hats. A hat I held dear. How was I going to be able to go home and walk into my office with all my teaching tools present I had collected over the years and look at them without crying. I had no clue. 

Much to my surprise when I got home what jumped out of my closets were not the stored puppets and drawings I used over the years but memories instead. Such as the memories of the pie a student threw in my face. The broken finger I got praying for another student when I was so heavily involved in the prayer I didn't notice my finger was still in the door jam as I shut the door. Also how could I ever forget the brother and sister team who tied me to my chair and held me captive till their parents arrived. Then there was the middle school child that was dropped off suddenly at the church camp where I was a counselor that was abandoned by her parents and I was the friend she was in need of at the time. Or the student I tried to convince to flunk kindergarten just so he could stay in my class. 

All were great memories to hold on to that was for sure. Truly over the years the kids had an impact on my life and I can only pray I impacted theirs as well. Gone may be the days of pretend tea parties, rocks being shoved up little boys noses, play dough stuck to carpet, sliding in fear down water slides and participating in Christmas plays but what will remain forever is the list of the kids I had taught. 

A list I collected over time of the students who had come across my path over the years. One I used to pray for the kids, to think about them and to enjoy the news of their spiritual progress long after leaving my classroom. Such as the student who was just baptized in his 30s who I had taught so long ago along with his many other teachers that worked so hard to plant a seed towards a harvest yet to be grown. 

Whether it's quick results or time delayed harvests it doesn't matter. The rewards of teaching over the years has been tremendous for me. I only wish I could have done more. If I could I would be more than happy to flunk cancer just to stay in my class but it doesn't work that way. 

Still remains in my heart are the words of the scripture I was given my first time I directed a daily vacation Bible school out of Isaiah 6:8. "I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, here am I, send me."  

"Lord, I sadly but proudly hang up my hat as preschool Sunday school teacher but wherever You can use me I will follow. Here I am and always will be, send me."

In love WITH Jesus,

Karen

Classroom in Session

His word is a book of instructions, guidelines, and boundaries. If we study the Word, learn His ways, and submit to His Word, we are protected. –Lara Velez, Psalm 91 – He Who Dwells…




Praise the Lord that God’s Word is a textbook for the classroom of life. It is full of instructions, guidelines, and boundaries. Boundaries? Yes, boundaries. The God who set the boundaries for the ocean telling it where it can stop and go has boundaries for us. Unfortunately this is where the secular world likes to make Christianity look unappealing. They claim we have no freedom with all the rules and regulations God has placed before us. They think we are so old-schooled that we haven’t had a modern thought in centuries.


Much to the world’s surprise we are way ahead of them. We not only have the layout for the future but for all eternity as well. Studying God’s word, learning His ways, and submitting to His Word is what will get us where we need to be in our journey forward. It protects us spiritually.


Some would think, ‘a lot of good that does me right now, I need protection from bad people, disease, mother nature, and other things first.’ No, if you ponder the idea when it comes to protection we have our priorities. We protect those things that are the most valuable, what we love the most, what means the most to us.


We need to start to realize that our spiritual lives should be the most important thing we set out to persevere and protect. It’s the one thing we will take with us into eternity. In some ways the condition of it going into eternity is what it always will be. Thankfully it will be minus all the worldly traits we don’t have to fight anymore but we still are responsible to get it in shape here and now.


Getting it into shape is what takes us back to the classroom of life and the lessons and growth that needs to take place there. Psalm 91 that is being studied begins with, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” In other words, we are under God’s protection but we have our part to play. We have to attend the class of life with the attitude that we want to learn and grow from what we have been taught.


It should never be good enough to simply pass but to advance with a maturity goal that can be seen in our actions, attitude, and availability to God. Indeed the formula we have to use to accomplish this is the three in one, 1) study, 2) learn, and 3) submit. Once properly applied we get to dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, under His protection, engulfed in His love, surrounded by His wisdom.


I’d hate to burst any bubbles out there but school is never over. There will always be a classroom that demands our attention and gives us a lesson or a test we have to pass. It would do us well to pay attention to our Teacher, Jesus Christ. Doing so with the determination needed to study hard, learn well, and submit frequently all we have learned.

Our spiritual classroom is in session, where is your seat? Are you out in the hall waiting out your punishment? In the principals offices waiting for mom to come and get you after you’ve been expelled? Or are you sitting in classroom day dreaming of “after school? Or are you paying attention to the Teacher and taking serious the things needed to learn to move forward and achieve improvement.


Truth be known, I’ve probably been the student that has been in each of those positions at one point or another. A time or two or three or four or…… I’ve found myself up by the chalkboard writing 100 times the thing I did that I was told not to do.


No matter what area in our spiritual classroom we are currently in we need to continue to move forward and not to drop out and quit. We need the determination to better ourselves and to learn from our mistakes, to seek God’s protection. The Teacher has put a lot into the lessons we need to learn, it would do us well to do our best to learn them, to actually be teachable. It’s protection for our souls, its peace for our minds.




Our host today is Twinklemom at her blog, SunflowerFaith, you really need to get over there and see the wonders she has in store for us in this mini series of quotes from a study of Psalm 91.

Dwell or Excel

“The Christian often tries to forget his weakness: God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply.” by Andrew Murray


I don’t know about you but when it comes to weaknesses the last thing I am able to do is forget them. For me they seem to pop up frequently, haunt me often, and Satan uses them as a board to beat me over the head with. They are the boots that stomp me in the ground when I’m already down. Over and over again its Satan’s voice I hear that reminds me daily of my areas of little strength. He is the first one to point them out and the last one to keep silent regarding them.


To me, God is the one who tells me not to worry about them because He has them covered. He is the support we need when we’re at our weakest. He is the strength we lack and the confidence we need to get by. That’s what God wants us to remember is the fact that He is there for us, that we shouldn’t worry about those areas in our lives because He has them wrapped up in His own strength and wisdom.


What God doesn’t want us doing is dwelling on these areas to the point we get stuck in our own flukes and flaws. Too often we like to use them as an excuse to get out of doing things for the Lord as well as other people. “Oh I can’t do that I’m too shy. I can’t serve God there I’m not talented enough…..” and the excuses go on.


There’s a balancing act here to be found. An act of balancing between dwelling on our weaknesses too much or not enough. We can learn from our weaknesses and become stronger where we once were feeble. We don’t need to dwell but to excel in these areas using the strength of God so that we can’t boast that we “did it ourselves.”


Where we are weak God is strong if we would only allow Him to be. God’s not in the stomping business but the carpentry business of building us up. The part we play is to want to be teachable. Learning from our own weaknesses instead of always trying to point out other people’s to make ours look better.


Dwell or excel the choice is ours. God makes the one possible, we make the other happen.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing