The Bible for Women

Weekly Devotional

Thank God for Faithful Teachers

Today I am thankful for faithful teachers: teachers who have decided in their hearts to keep God in their classrooms in public school, teachers who teach in Christian schools and dedicated teachers who homeschool their children each day.

I attended a moving Veterans Day program at my son's public school PTA meeting where we had an invocation which thanked God for our blessings in Jesus name, where students boldly sang, "God Bless the USA," and students recited from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech: "...we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The teachers and students worked very hard to create this program and God was there every moment (Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them). I thank God for those teachers who hold strongly to their faith and who continue to bless our children each day by keeping God in schools. As I walk through classrooms in our public school system, I observe a Bible among the books that children can read during free reading time, a plaque with a scripture on a shelf, and a teacher in the hall talking to a distraught parent. "I will be praying for your family," she says. Before school starts, you can hear the sound of children singing "Jesus Loves Me" in the gym at F.R.O.G. (Fully Rely on God) club and see a puppet show about ways to have Christian character at school that day. At the middle and high schools youth ministers can be seen daily eating lunch with students- no doubt in God's name. I spoke with a preacher's wife who teaches in a public school and she said to me, "God will remain in schools as long as faithful Christians are teaching in them." What a great attitude when we hear so much negativism!

In some cities where students are financially able to attend Christian schools, they have the opportunity to be blessed by daily chapel and Bible stories in the classroom. They are able to pray aloud before lunch and have Bible taught as a class. Teachers can pray openly before class begins. I thank God for those teachers who make the financial sacrifice to teach those children. I also thank God for the many moms who spend countless hours in preparation and collaboration in order to successfully teach their children at home. Lord bless them for taking on this very serious and trying responsibility. I thank them for taking on the task of starting programs at their local congregations to support those who have chosen this education for their children. I thank them for also teaching with the love of Christ.

We all remember our favorite teachers and we remember how they treated us, how they made us feel special, smart, and successful. That sounds like 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11"But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing," and Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."

Many teachers. Many different environments. Same love for Christ.

Same goal:

Colossians 3:23-24, "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."

This Thanksgiving holiday, take a moment to thank your child's teacher or a teacher who made a difference in you.

May God bless your week. Margie