Merry Christmas to our members and friends of CEAI!
As we reflect on the most amazing gift in history—the choice of the eternally existent Son of God to come to us in the weakness of human flesh as a helpless baby—at some point we are overwhelmed with gratitude.
I also get overwhelmed with gratitude when I think about the gift that you are to your students, families, and colleagues. As you carry within you the very presence of God through the Holy Spirit and let it pour out (or sometimes leak out) to others, you are a gift. For example, you are God’s gift when you:
- Make the extra effort to compassionately seek understanding of a student’s back story.
- Endure being mistreated by a parent or administrator without repaying evil for evil, but rather praying for them.
- Carefully (and prayerfully) design a lesson plan with your specific students in mind.
- Trust the Lord when “that” student is put back in your class, knowing that the God who believes in second (and third, and fourth) chances will be with you.
- Courageously and lovingly stand in the gap against ungodly influences that would harm your students.
- Sacrifice your personal time and money for the sake of your students’ learning and success.
- Turn a parent conference into a “ministry time” by encouraging them and praying for them.
- Walk a colleague through a difficult life circumstance or classroom situationwith loving patience.
- Carefully grade that essay or project your students worked so hard to complete.
- Champion the gifts you see in a child during an IEP.
It may feel sometimes like the things you do go unnoticed. The Christmas story is full of examples of God using the unnoticed—an obscure teenage girl in Nazareth was uniquely honored, outcast shepherds in the fields were God’s chosen witnesses, and a barren old woman birthed the forerunner to the Savior.
God sees you. Three times in Matthew 6, Jesus says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” But maybe the greatest reward is the joy of partnering with our Savior to be channels of His love and power to those He gives us. We encourage you to once again say “yes” to being His gift this Christmas.
Blessings,
David Schmus
Executive Director
Christian Educators Association International
ceai.org