Rachel Whisman

From August until the end of May, every Monday-Friday is quite the same. First, I wake up and execute the same morning routine. Then, drive to work. Get out of the car. Take my belongings with me. Enter school. Unlock my classroom door. Turn the lamps on. Do my best to try and remember to unpack my lunch and put it in the mini-fridge. Update the morning calendar. Check my work emails. Brace for impact as the morning bell rings and a small group of bubbly students walk inside my classroom with enough excitement to frazzle a chipmunk at 7:30 in the morning. The day starts and it doesn’t seem to stop until I put the last kid into their car for dismissal. I do this every day. Five days out of the week for about 30 weeks. It starts to seem monotonous very quickly. Boredom can set in. What is the point of it? How are these kids’ lives being changed for the glory of God? How is God being magnified while teaching these students about regrouping in addition? 

I think a lot of teachers can get bogged down by doing the same thing over and over again. I know I do. It can cause me to turn into myself and the self-pity rises…woe is me, etc. Yet, what did Jesus’ life look like on earth? What did he do every day? Was it glamorous? Have you ever stopped to ponder about how ordinary Jesus’s day-to-day life was? Here are some thoughts. He was born in human form. His mother held him as a baby. He learned how to crawl, and then walk. He was raised by his parents. Lived with his siblings. Grew in maturity. Learned from his dad and mom. Acquired the skill of a carpenter. He chose to walk alongside men, who were arrogant, ignorant of who He was, selfish most of the time, and some of whom just caught fish for their living. He chose to stay with them. He got into boats with them. He walked to desolate places alone. Asked His disciples to join Him in desolate places. These are all very ordinary, mundane, acts. However, it is the person of Christ that made them not ordinary. 

Out of ALL the things Jesus could have chosen to do, he did that and much more. Isn’t that wild? Isn’t that humbling? God of creation in human form (Hebrews 1:3) chose to be purposeful in the day-to-day tasks. He is what makes it purposeful. Therefore, it is Christ in me that makes the day-to-day teacher schedule meaningful. It is Christ in me, who makes teaching children how to regroup meaningful. I am called to faithfulness because He loves me. I am called to be faithful in the mundane, suffering, and joys of life because He has redeemed me and every act I do is worship of thanks for Him. Bottom-line, it isn’t about me. It’s about being faithful where the Lord has placed you and watching His power be displayed in the conversations He provides and the people you come into contact with. We do these things because 1 Peter 1:8 states, “Though you do not see Him, you love Him.” We love Him because 1 John 4:10 explains, “…not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” We are faithful in the mundane because God loved us first. There is nothing better for us to offer back to our Father, but faithfulness to whatever He has placed before us because He loves us.

In reality, this is not mundane, ordinary, boring faithfulness. It is quite the opposite. It is extraordinary because “We are His workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” (Ephesians 2:10). Therefore, I walk in the good works of teaching second graders. I walk with purpose throughout my days because God has prepared them for me. So, I encourage you to walk.  It is Him, that deems them good. We can trust him! Therefore, nothing is boring about these good works because we do not serve a boring God, but one who loves us and is worthy of everything we do.