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Both of my grandparents on my father’s side were teachers. My father is a retired teacher. His sister married a teacher. His brother was a teacher. His brother’s wife is a college professor. His brother’s daughter, my cousin, has followed in the family footsteps, she too is a teacher.
I, on the other hand, have a rebellious spirit. Living under my father’s ideas of academic excellence was often a strain. My grades were never high enough, I did not care enough and he always sided with the teacher.
I’ll never forget the day I stood on my elementary school playground and made a vow that was surely as dramatic as the one Scarlett O’Hara made in the Twelve Oaks slave garden. “I will never be a teacher!” I proclaimed, “I will never marry a teacher! I will not put my children through that!”
To my dismay, God has a way of dealing with rebels. As an adult, I’ve learned that no matter what vow I had made and no matter what path I had chosen, I had the blood of a teacher.
I knew the first time I took a spiritual gifts test what my spiritual gift would be before I even looked at the questions. The rebel in me wanted to answer the questions incorrectly, but curiosity won out and I resisted the temptation.
My worst fear was realized. Teaching is my number one spiritual gift.
After overcoming the shock of that devastating blow, I knew that I had to obey God’s plan for my life. I began as a helper in the children’s department at church.
Once I began to teach, I found that I could not stop. Since that time I have taught nursery age children that God made them and the hand movements to children’s songs. I have taught in the preschool and elementary children’s departments at church. I have led groups of junior high girls in Bible study. I have led women’s Bible studies. I have taught the high school Sunday school class and women’s classes using my own curriculum. I have given testimonies to small groups and large ones. I never would have believed it, but I have loved every minute of it. I can’t get enough!
I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 9:16, “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”
I know how he felt! Woe to me if I had continued to rebel against the way God created me! Yet because I finally chose to be obedient to God’s will, I have been blessed beyond belief. I may never make a single dime for any word that I write or teach, I may not have a teaching license or a degree in education, but I am a teacher. That is who God made me to be.
The blessings continue as I watch my 8 year old daughter patiently explaining something to her 4 year old sister. She brings a smile to my heart every time I see her lining her dolls and teddy bears up so that she can teach them. “You’ll make a great teacher some day,” I tell her as I pat her on the head, “It’s in your blood.”
Copyright, 2004, Lisa D. Beaman
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