How do we share the love Jesus gives us to others? How we teach matters more than you know.
Recently in the span of one day I had two very different encounters with two different people, both teaching moments for me. Both were from Christians who care, trying to encourage me into uncomfortable territory. One left a sting, some shame, and embarrassment. The other was loving, encouraging and unassuming, and I didn't even recognize it was a teaching lesson until later. Which one do you think had more depth?
I didn't realize I was being taught an incredible lesson at the time, I was too wrapped up in the emotions of each experience. That night in my journal/prayer time in a series of Q&A the lesson was revealed to me.
As Christians, we're called upon to have the heart of a teacher, little replicas from our greatest Teacher of all. What are we teaching? Anything and everything it seems, perhaps the topic isn't what's most important but how we go about doing it that has the lasting impact. Our impact can steer people towards or away. Being Christian we're under a magnify glass with a very high bar to do things perfectly.
Are we always going to be the perfect teacher for someone in need? I don't think so, we're human. How many times have we heard that people will let us down? We're all figuring this thing out, we'll make mistakes and others will do us wrong. That's where that forgiveness thing comes into play, right?
I'm not here to tell you one teaching style is more or less than another. What I can say is that some styles can be harsh, stings on purpose to poke you to rise higher. I've grown up with this style my whole life. Does it make me get angry and trudge ahead, yup. Is it healthy? Nope. Some would argue effectiveness matters more than feelings. I care about depth, but admit sometimes I'm not sure what the best answer is here.
That night when I realized there was a lesson in the heart of a teacher here, I sat quietly and relived the experiences of that day in my mind. My heart flooded with gratitude to the teacher who was a teacher without being a teacher. It was my church mama, the loveliest lady of faith I've ever met who welcomed me not just in my beginning days of being a Christian, but every day since with a loving open heart. There are no jabs, no pokes, her style is a loving squeeze of the hand in encouragement to step out and do something new, something uncomfortable. She didn't even realize she was teaching me something life changing.
I wrote her and told her the kind of teacher she was and how truly grateful and blessed we are to have her in this life.
When I imagine sitting at Jesus' feet with Him teaching, it's a lot like this. There are no stabs, kicks, He gets His point across with compassion and conviction. While I respect both teachers speaking into my life, I encourage you before you speak into someone's life to take a second and ask yourself, how would Jesus do this?
Your words have power. We are all teachers speaking into the lives of those all around us. We need a role model to help us leave people better than we found them. No one does this better than Jesus, look up, He'll help you.
