What I Learned From Watching Someone Else Teach

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to watch my best friend teach.

She teaches 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades various subjects in a small school.
I teach Kindergarten, so you can imagine the differences in our classrooms.

Here are some things I have learned from that experience.

• If you respect your students, they will respect you.
• You have instant camaraderie with a 5th grader if you ask him what's for lunch today.
• Jenga blocks can be used like dominoes.
• The analytical prowess of an 11-year-old is impressive.
• 3rd grade girls surpass the maturity of 5th grade boys by about two years. 
• 5th graders can be a lot quieter than Kindergartners.
• There is hope for my Kindergarten kids to become focused, quiet 5th graders.
• All kids love Jenga blocks
• All kids love to play
• There is an exponential amount of knowledge from Kindergarten to 5th grade.
• They CAN SIT STILL! :)
• experiments with gum are the best! 
• Apparently 5th graders are resourceful at finding out you have a boyfriend.
• Apparently 5th graders are able to find their teacher's boyfriend's address online.
• Again, 5th graders are very resourceful people.
• I'm so glad I don't teach 5th graders who ask invasive questions.
• My best friend may be one of the most patient people I've ever met.
• She is definitely the most patient person I know.
• 5th grade boys are really good at pushing the rules. 
• 5th grade boys might also be some of the funniest kids I've met.
• My best friend is one of the best teachers I know. :)

The Fear of Our Calling to Community.

I sat down this evening with a plan.
Doritos and Water bottle (Yes, I know, so very healthy) strategically placed next to me, and crocheting in my lap, I snuggled into my comfy chair to watch Psych on Netflix.
And that is exactly what I did.
For three hours.
My roommates came home, exercised, and we chatted for a while, before I inevitably became lost again in the world of a made up character.

Eventually, they went to bed, and I was left alone again, with my favorite show, a finished scarf, and the taste of Doritos in my mouth.

I don't even really like Doritos.

As I was getting ready for bed in a silent apartment, I realized that I hadn't even bothered to ask my roommates how their days were. Sure, we had chatted for a little while about workouts, and how they got the huge broken TV out of the house for cleanup week (They are blessed to have strong brothers that will work for desserts), but I hadn't asked them anything consequential, and our conversation was distracted at best.
I was too engrossed in my program.
But why? Why would I want to shut the world out, shut my friends out, instead of engaging, and at least giving them my full attention for more than 5 minutes?

I think it is because I am afraid. Afraid to engage, afraid to open up, to be real with people, and to have community with others.
It is so much easier to simply shut myself off, block out the world around me, and laugh at fictional characters for hours.

Yet what am I called to do, as a Christian?

Hebrews 10:24-25 English Standard Version (ESV)
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;"

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20

We are called, as Christians, to be in community with others. Communion, which we participate in during church with bread and wine, means to share in and exchange something.

We are called to exchange thoughts and engage with one another. Instead I sit on the sidelines, engaging in my own pointless entertainment.

What did I gain from those three hours watching Netflix? A few laughs, some insight into how to solve crimes perhaps?

What more would I have gained had I taken the time to engage in the community surrounding me, the people right in front of me, maybe asked them to elaborate on their day, their struggles, opened up about what I have been praying about lately?

Yes, it's difficult to be real with those around us.

To show who we really are, and engage after a long day of work or school.

It is much easier to simply fall into the rabbit hole of Netflix, Facebook, or the million other distractions which are at our fingertips.

Yet as I become less engaged, less willing to show who I truly am, and be real about the struggles I am facing, or the way the Lord is working in my life, the easier it is to become as two dimensional and surface level as the characters in my latest shows.

Those characters are an artist's rendering, only dim reflections of the real, complex people who I encounter every day.
The real people are the ones who I am called to love, and share with in community.

Hanna Elizabeth

Good friends, and unity within the Church (with a capital C)

          Greater Love has no one than this: That a man lay down his life for his friends-John 15:13

You know that you have good friends when they come from across town to help you jump start your car. Because you left your lights on...all night...for the fifth time...

Yet still they come to bail you out, my "knights in t-shirts" as these ladies call themselves. A fitting title I would say.

Trivial to them, as I would find out, but a huge blessing to me.

Which, as I was driving around, charging up the battery to my newly running vehicle, brought me to this question: 

Is there a time in life when one does not need good friends? I can say with certainty...no.

In fact, as Christians, I would say we are called to have good friends, to have community which we can turn to, to help each other out, to build each other up, and to work together as the body of Christ.

This, as it turns out, is what we discussed in Bible study tonight.

--Side note about this bible study: It is one of the best I have been a part of, mainly because all of us are from different Protestant denominations, have somewhat different doctrines, yet there is so much we can agree on. Now if only we had a Catholic or two in our group....But I'm get ahead of myself--

Isn't it great when the Lord uses our circumstances to illustrate a point he was trying to make?

The insights I gained from Bible study tonight:

We, as humans, are designed for community, and as Christians, a community of believers. All of us have different gifts and abilities which play off of each other. Romans 12:5 calls us "one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." (ESV)  

Why then, must we divide ourselves within the body of Christ? How can we, as Christians, of any denomination, Protestant, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, or any others, forget to work together, forget that we serve the same God? 

How can we, as the Church (with a capital C, meaning the whole body of believers) possibly hope to let the Lord change the world through us if we cannot, at the very least, momentarily put aside our differences in doctrine, theology, or even the color of the (little c: the building) church carpet, and seek the Lord's goodness?

As I mulled over these things on the way home, I wanted to jump straight into my newly minted blog to write about it. 

But the Lord stopped me as I opened my computer, and a thought popped into my head.

Read your bible first

So, after a brief struggle of will, in which I finally decided He was right (as per usual), I opened my bible and began to read, and this passage popped out at me:

     First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for ALL people...This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 2:1-5 (emphasis mine)

The Lord doesn't want certain types of peoples, or certain denominations and groups of people to get to know him. The Lord wants ALL people to know him, and to be saved by Him. We, as the Church should want that as well. If we were to work together, seeking the Lord and spreading His Love, instead of seeking to be right, how could the Lord use us even more? 

Don't get me wrong, doctrine and theology are important, and should not be taken lightly. To throw theology out the window would be a grave and very hurtful mistake, for theology shapes our understanding of who God is.

 However, as we zoom out and look at the big picture of God working through the Church, the question remains: How much more effective would the Church be, if we remembered that we are ALL brothers and sisters in Christ, not just the people who go to our church?

Something to consider,

Hanna Elizabeth