NEWS

Bullying

Bullying has become a national problem.

A Day in My Life™ is a new bullying prevention Education Game! This classroom board game teaches students the roles that everyone chooses when bullying occurs and how most of the roles are a part of the bullying problem.

Check it out on our website at www.ceai.org

TODAY'S DEVOTIONAL

Prayer: Lord, thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to lead us in wisdom. Please help us to always know when You want us to speak up.

The Right Time

Scripture: But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matt 13:23

When is it time to put differences aside for the sake of unity versus standing up for the unpopular? This week in the teacher's lounge I was outnumbered: me, and them. I gave my views on stem cell research, and they gave theirs. Theirs was backed up by well-funded propaganda. "They won't harvest eggs, Cheryl," they told me authoritatively. "These are stored eggs, frozen eggs. There are millions. They don't need to harvest eggs.

It is not a matter of caring whether or not people agree with me. But we are to be bearers of truth. So when is it demanded of us not to be silent, but to speak the truth in love? Let's take this morning in history class. When the history teacher was saying, "We're evolved from apes," I, as the special education teacher in the class, was taking in the information along with the students, to be able to help them study later. Was that a speak-the-truth moment? Was I to stand and speak out against the idiotic lie of that statement?

Or is it better to wait for a private moment to speak to the teacher alone? I had a great experience a few years ago when I was in the science class with a brilliant science educator. I used this approach. "Do you mind if I purchase a set of The Creation Trilogy and place it in this classroom for students to be able to pick up?" She was delighted and asked if she could please read them first. She took the three books home, devoured them, and shared them with her husband and her extended family. As a result, she and her husband turned their lives over to Christ, joined a church, and made Jesus the center of their lives!

What an opportunity to be able to affect, not only the lives of students, but the lives of their teachers as we stay faithful in the public schools. I pray for us to be sensitive to know the right timing and the right circumstances so that the truth will be planted into fertile soil.

Copyright Cheryl Skid. Email cskid@ceai.org