READING: Proverbs 22:17-24:34
I have been teaching for more than 26 years. My desire to teach preceded my entering the field, though. I wanted to be a teacher when I was five years old, and I could tell story after story about ways I “taught” as an elementary, junior high, and high school student. In fact, I keep on my desk a gradebook I purchased when I was in fourth grade just because all teachers had a gradebook.
I started teaching because I love to teach, but I’ve since learned that my role as a seminary professor gives me even greater reason to teach: it is to instruct others so their “confidence may be in the Lord” (Prov 22:19). The statements in today’s reading were given so those who operate in wisdom would grow in their confidence in the Lord—and that ought to be our goal when we teach and preach.
In my world of academia, we evaluate our effectiveness by self-evaluations, peer evaluations, etc. In my role as a pastor, I recognize that the real test of my shepherding leadership is not so much what I do; it’s what those I teach do in the long-run. It’s whether they have more confidence in the Lord now as I’ve sought to teach them wisdom.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you living wisely?
DAILY PRAYER: “Help me, God, to grow in my confidence of You.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Song of Songs 1:1-8:14
