September 10, 2017 Teach Me O Lord
This Sunday is “Education Sunday” and we’ll lift up in prayer all the teachers who expand the minds and souls of our young people from home-school, to public school, to Sunday School.
I was blessed to have some adults who truly cared about me as I grew up. My first grade teacher’s name was Happy Boozer (I’m not kidding) and she truly lived up to her first name, though not the second, thank God.
I was something of a hyper-active joker (a smart-aleck according to my parents) who liked to lean back in my chair during reading circle and fall backwards, crashing to the floor. The other kids would hoot and holler with laughter. That was understandable – kids by nature laugh when their classmates do really stupid, infantile things. What used to astonish me was that Miss. Boozer would laugh, too. No punishment. No warnings about how I was going to suffer a concussion. She would just laugh and keep reading.
Pretty soon I stopped the pranks because I discovered that she was a really good reader and I enjoyed the stories more than the laughs. And as I began to read myself, she encouraged me and complimented me to the point that I no longer needed to do pratfalls in order to get attention.
Miss Boozer taught me it was OK to be who you are. In fact, it wasn’t just OK. It was essential to life, learning, and happiness.
Thank you, Miss Boozer for teaching me that it’s possible to be myself and be happy, even in school. And thank you to every teacher who has ever made an eternal difference in a child’s life.
In Christ’s Grace and Peace, Pastor Bob
Psalm 119:33-40