So I haven't posted in a while, but today I have something special to talk about. Something that has always been close to my heart, but has grown even closer and may even prove to be a calling in the future. Children...
Now, I come from a long line of teachers. My mum, my grandfather, all the way back, I don't know how far. My mum always talked about teaching and I always wrinkled my nose, so she eventually broadened her discussions to just "working with children," which I wasn't terribly excited about, but I was a lot more inclined to consider than teaching...At that point, I was thinking down the psychology route. Well, much to my dismay, that which I swore against has become a reality. In the fall of 2003 I began to teaching dance to students of all ages, but mainly between the ages of 4 & 8...yes, my future was beginning to unfold, strongly against my will and I was becoming what my mother said I would become...Then this past fall the "so-called" nightmare was all but completed, when a close friend of mine, a Physical Education teacher here, asked me to assist her. So, I began what I presume will be a long journey in my educational career. I am now assisting once a week (sometimes twice) at a wonderful Christian Classical School, called New Hope Academy. The school teaches grades Pre-K through 6th. and I teach 1st. - 6th. New Hope is an incredible private school that was established as a means for low-income, inter-racial families to experience a Christian and classical education. However, now, the school has children of all social classes, races, and upbringings. 70% of the children are from single-parent situations, and those children are in the same classroom with children of some of the most prominent music producers in Nashville and in the country. From children of pastors to children who have a parent in jail or don't know where or even who, one of their parents is, at New Hope they all come together for a common goal - to have a place of academic excellence, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, becoming a true picture of the Kingdom of God.
Although I teach these children once or twice week how to play games and how to keep their bodies healthy, they have ministered to me so much more. Adults could learn a thing or two if they just looked at the lives of their children - in the ways they interact, in the ways they relate to each other, children have a clearer understanding of the Kingdom of God than we do. That is why God calls us to be like children - pure and innocent, virtually untainted by the sin that wrecks havoc in our world. It is only when we become like children before our Father, will we truly understand His love, His grace, and His mercy, and in turn only then will we inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. It is like the story of the little girl, who after hearing her mother had finally given birth after a long labor, quickly rushed into see her new little sibling and exclaimed, "Quick, tell me what God is like before you forget!" It is true, as children we are closer to God, living in that somewhat innocent stage of life, untainted by pride, power, prejudice, money, and the other sins of the world. In those years as children we exhibit a faith that is hard to retrieve as we become adults, but one that we should always seek to return to, for that is what God calls us to. That is why He said, "Let the children come unto Me!"
And so, as I have been impacted by each and everyone of these children, so has God revealed to me, my passion for teaching...I do not know if that will take place in the traditional "school" sense, but I know, for a fact, that in some way, shape, or form in my life, I am called to educate, and educate children, or adults for that matter, in the Truth and Hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether that be in the academic realm or elsewhere...these few kids at New Hope Academy have helped me find my destiny...
"You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth." -Gibran
Below are some pictures of a day at New Hope...enjoy!
