I Corinthians 13 for Teachers
Adapted from the Message Translation by Eugene Peterson
If I teach with the degrees of colleges and universities but have not love I am nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I have the gift of classroom management and can detect trouble spots and all slow starters, and if I have a whistle that will move student bodies, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I share all my lesson plans and surrender my prep period to committee meetings, but have not love, I’ve gotten nowhere.
Love never gives up on the slow learner.
Love cares more for students that self-esteem.
Love doesn’t envy youth, nor boast about experience.
Love isn’t proud because it knows some of the answers.
Love doesn’t force its way about everything on every student, isn’t always me-first, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of wrong.
Love does not delight in failure but takes pleasure in even small successes.
Love always protects the helpless, always trusts that the image of God is in every student, always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Bell schedules will be over some day; duty rosters will end; state credentialing requirements will finally reach their limit. We know only a portion of love and the way we love as human teachers is always incomplete. But when the Master Teacher-Lover comes, He completes what we lack.
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