Read and reflect on Psalm 86:11-13 and respond to the questions below. .
"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O LORD my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave."
What do you think is meant by an “undivided heart”?
An undivided heart means giving your all to something. As it applies to teaching, we are not to become part-time teachers and spend a good deal of our time in other ventures. I am a perfect example of that, I was taking online classes simultaneously to get my real estate license while I was getting my teaching credential, but I postponed the program once I started student-teaching because it took up too much time. I wanted to dedicate my time to teaching and learning how to teach (as I spend a lot more time learning than I do teaching!). I needed to have an undivided heart towards teaching. Once I feel that I am an expert teacher and have devoted enough time to teaching I can pursue other ventures, but right now is a time in my life where I need to have an undivided heart and totally dedicate myself to being the best teacher I can be. It makes it much easier since I love teaching so much and I really really really hope I can get a job once I'm done student teaching.
What is at the “heart” of your life as a teacher?
The heart of my life as a teacher is service. I did not enter the teaching profession so that I could become wealthy and obtain many worldly possessions. Sadly, that is the goal of some people who really have no direction in their life and their materialistic outlook leads to greed instead of a relationship with God and with other people. My ultimate goal in life is to have a positive influence on as many people as I possibly can and teaching is an excellent way to do that. There are so many young students out there who have no direction, no positive role models, and no hope. Hopefully I can be the person to bring those things to some of them.
Erik,
ReplyDeleteYour desire to reach out and positively affect the lives of young students is to be commended for. I know that you are in the teaching profession to make a difference in our youth. Continue to share and maintain this vision. All the best.
Dr. Lim