TRUCKING TOPSOIL INTO EDUCATION
April 26, 2021
Prayer: Lord, help us truck your topsoil, the Bible, into the garden of education to build great soil [souls]. Amen.
Scripture: For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations [in all schools]. Isaiah 61:11
In my home garden, after establishing boundaries, I trucked in 40 yards of topsoil from a local nursery to pour into these boundaries. Great souls in education are built by trucking God’s topsoil, the Bible, into our professional lives. Are we daily trucking God’s written word into the schools and pouring it into our souls? We daily pour physical food into our bodies during lunch at school. Are we spiritually pouring the Bible into ourselves at least once each day at school? How? What is more important, feeding our spirits or feeding our bodies?
Jaqueline (Jackie) Green is a sixth-grade science instructor at Hamilton Middle School. She is a great soul who has been trucking God’s word into her professional life for over twenty years. Her peers have selected her as Teacher of the Year four times. She provides high quality character education, academic instruction and extra-curricular activities for her students.
Every year, before school starts, Jackie spends time alone with the Lord at a Christian educators’ retreat. At this retreat, she asks the Lord for banner Bible verses to pray for herself, the school, parents, and students she serves. She writes these down and places them in the Bible she keeps open on her classroom desk at all times as a visual reminder to be open to God’s leading throughout the school day. Along with these Bible verses, Jackie places the Bible-based unity prayers she receives at the retreat.
Jackie keeps a journal on her desk where she writes down the names and needs of parents, students, and staff. She searches for and writes a scripture God gives her to go with each name and need.
Jackie gets to school at least an hour before her official duty time begins. She shuts her classroom door and spends the first fifteen minutes alone with God. For several minutes she becomes completely still and listens. She then speaks the name, “Jesus,” and thanks and praises Him for two or more things going on at school. Jackie opens her journal, and using the Bible verses, prays for the needs of the parents, students, and staff. She concludes by openly pouring out to God what is on her heart each morning.
Other ways Jackie trucks in God’s topsoil, the Bible, to build her soul are:
- reading a short passage from Psalms or Proverbs aloud from her Bible while alone in the classroom before going to lunch each day
- attending a bi-weekly campus faculty share, care, and prayer group in which a Bible-based devotional is read
- subscribing to and reading a weekly Bible-based teacher email devotional
- annually purchasing a new teacher devotional book to randomly read throughout the year.
How much topsoil [Bible] is in your education garden? Is it time to start trucking?
Reflection: Am I a great soul? How much topsoil [Bible] is in my education garden? Do I need more?
Getting Real: Ask God for one way He wants you to start feeding your soul at school. Write down what He tells you and share it with an accountability partner at school. Start doing what God tells you.
Copyright Don Clark. Email [email protected]