Seasons in Education

Rebecca, a middle school math teacher has a brown thumb — everything she plants dies. Even the hardiest weed would quiver in fear if she was to hold it in her hands. There was one exception, a kind of rapidly spreading flower commonly called Mexican petunia. She planted it along a fence line. It thrived and created a thick green cover with delicate crepe paper-like beautiful purple flowers. Very little maintenance was required.

The following winter, the Mexican petunias were killed during a very hard prolonged freeze, which was rare in her part of the country. All the stalks and leaves withered, turned brown, and died. So much for Rebecca’s one horticultural success story.

In the spring, however, and much to her surprise, the petunias sprang back to life as the rains soaked the hidden life-filled roots not seen by human eyes. The Mexican petunias came back stronger and more beautiful than before.

School personnel, materials and programs are a lot like the Mexican petunias, each flowering and bearing fruit in its season. We all have relationships with fellow staff members that just seem to take off and blossom. We find materials and programs that we love which bear much academic fruit. Then winter comes. Principals and fellow teachers that we have developed lasting friendships with retire, move or transfer to another school or district. Highly effective programs and materials are sometimes discarded and replaced by the newest “research” based fads in education. These fads usually last five to seven years and are then replaced.

We can survive and even thrive in these winter seasons of our careers if our roots are buried deep in a personal relationship with God. Then we have the heart, spirit and courage to spring back from these professional setbacks — the hard freezes. Adapting to and dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in education has been perhaps the hardest

freeze in education over the last hundred years. We can and will come back as better, more mature, deeper rooted, more well-grounded educators who will continue to blossom and bear even more and better fruit. The oldest vines and fruit trees which have survived floods, droughts, high heat and freezes are often the hardiest and most weather resistant. They often produce the most and sweetest fruit.

Tend to your roots, your personal relationship with Jesus. Give Him time at work. Join with other believers at work and water one another in agreement in prayer and service to Him. Blossom and bear much fruit.

PRAYER: Lord, help us accept the seasons in our professional lives. Let us not become bitter in the winters but better, more in love and in touch with you while on the job. Help us bear more fruit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

EXERCISE: Ask the Holy Spirit to rain on you and reign in your professional life. Keep your Bible or devotional in your classroom on your desk. Read it before or after school or at lunch. Take time to spiritually feed yourself. Meet with other educators for encouragement and to agree in prayer. Thank the Lord for several things every day as you walk into the classroom or when you walk out on your way home.