Teaching the Next Generation

Hands down, I have learned more from my students in the past eleven years of teaching than any of my students have learned from me. I set out as a new teacher in the fall of 2005, anticipating that every student who sat in my junior high or high school English class that year would acquire as much of a passion as I had for grammar and the English language. It didn’t take me long to discover that English class was at the top of the list on students’ most hated subjects!

As hard as that was to grasp, over the years, I have developed an even stronger passion for my students to do well in my English classes. But God has reminded me time and again that doing well in my classes is not the most important thing in the lives of my students. “Doing well” in the Christian life is what I want to develop a passion for in their lives.

Pastor Chappell often says that ministry is not measured in years, but in decades. After a decade of serving in ministry, it is exciting to have seen some of my students go to college, many of them to my alma mater! Some of them have gotten married, and some have
children of their own. Many of them are serving the Lord faithfully!

Of course there has been a lot of heart break along the way as well—students who make poor decisions even after all the counsel they’ve received. But God is always faithful in reminding me that making a difference in a life takes work. I have had many of those “I’m going to stop trying with this kid and his family” moments. And then I remember how fortunate I am that Christ never gave up on me. How grateful I am for that! I am indebted to those people who took the time to make a difference in my life, and I want to be a difference-maker in the lives of my students!