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What if the Teaching Topic Isn’t Relevant to Me?

The class I teach at the local community college is an introductory freshman class that is required for the majority of students their first year. More often than not, I get several students that are irritated that they have to take the class. I think for many of them they think what they are already doing is working, that the topic isn’t relevant to them anymore, and that there really isn’t any reason or benefit for the class. They are operating under a false belief that they can’t learn anything new or that they already know all that there is to know about the topics we cover in class.

It’s hard to work with people who aren’t teachable. However, if they’ll adjust their mindset a bit and stick with the class, they usually find that they will get something beneficial out of the class, even if they are already familiar with some of the material.

Some strategies I use with my classes when they believe the topic isn’t relevant to them

To preempt some of the negative attitudes in my classes I’ve added a statement to my syllabus:

You will be expected to participate in this class with an open mind, a willingness to learn, and a realization that everyone has room for improvement. “Know-it-all” attitudes should be checked at the door.

Additionally, I try to share some strategies with them to combat the temptation to think that they aren’t going to learn anything new. First, I ask them to be open-minded, to never believe that they are above learning, and be willing to admit that they might have some room to learn more. Next, I will often share stories of other students who were also first agitated that they had to take this class but then were pleasantly surprised when they did actually gain some new and valuable information and strategies.

Then, I tell them to try to look at subject matter that they’ve already learned in a different light or from a different perspective. Finally, I tell them if they still think that they already know everything there is to know to approach the class as if they are learning how to teach this information to somebody else (i.e. a friend or family member).

Christians do the same thing

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Rebuild Your Spiritual Fire

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Rebuild Your Spiritual Fire

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” 2 Timothy 1:6 (NIV)

I absolutely love a good campfire. It’s so peaceful and mesmerizing. I love the crackling sounds, the dancing and sometimes colorful flames, and even the glowing embers as the fire starts to die down. It’s always a little sad when the fire goes out, and all I see is just a gray pile of ashes. There are times in life that I feel like those leftover ashes have mimicked my spiritual life…those times when I don’t really feel like I’m “on fire” anymore.

Have you experienced this too? Has your spiritual progress, growth, or walk with God at times seemed to have waned or died off a bit? Does it seem like God is more distant or that you are farther from God? The good news is that the fire or passion you may have once had is not really gone. It’s still IN you (see verse below). The embers are there. It just needs to be fanned back into a flame.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is IN you through the laying on of my hands” 2 Timothy 1:6 (NIV)

“That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [with those of the elders at your ordination].” 2 Timothy 1:6 (AMPC)

Embers are still hot enough to catch flame

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Comfort: Together-Strength

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Comfort: Together-Strength

Recently, I’ve come to learn that comfort is a word where its meaning has evolved over the years. Its original meaning might not necessarily correlate to how we often use and view it today. Not that our current use of the word is incorrect…but maybe it has an even deeper meaning.

I stumbled across this perspective of the word comfort in a reading plan that I started in my YouVersion Bible app last week. I started a plan called “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”. I’ve been a Christian long enough to know that we can’t always explain things that happen, even though inside our innermost being we just can’t help but to wonder WHY at times.

A “why” moment

I was in one of those “why” modes last week. These moments for me are typically short-lived because I know I’m not guaranteed an answer on this side of heaven. However, I still find myself indulging in them from time to time…hence why I looked up and started the reading plan about God not making sense.

A little over a week ago, we had a very difficult death in our family. My cousin’s wife passed away after a very long health battle. She was very young, only in her 30’s, and the mother of 2 small children. Honestly, I didn’t know her well at all, but I know enough from other family members to know that she was a godly woman. The family has been believing for her healing and recovery for quite some time now.

Her family recently uprooted their lives and relocated to Minnesota to be near the Mayo Clinic where she was being treated. She had been awaiting a liver transplant. After numerous false alarms, they finally found a match. Unfortunately, on the day of her surgery—the day that everyone had been waiting and praying for…the day that was supposed to be a happy day—she passed away. That’s not how it was supposed to go. That’s not the ending we had all been praying for.

How could there possibly be any comfort?

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I Cry During Praise and Worship

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I Cry During Praise and Worship

I cry during praise and worship. Is that weird? Does anyone else do that? Truthfully, sometimes it does make me a bit self-conscious! I tend to hope nobody sees my tears or sees me trying to covertly wipe my eyes. What if they think I’m weird? What if they think something is wrong? What if they try to console me, and I have to just say, “Oh no, I’m fine. I always cry during praise and worship. I’m just weird like that.”

Of course, it never fails that they play a song at church where I’ll get really emotional, and then right as it finishes they’ll say, “Now turn around and shake somebody’s hand, and have a seat!” Oh great! Not only do I already feel a bit abnormal for crying, but now I have to let somebody see my puffy red eyes, wet face, and maybe even mascara streaks down my face (…that is on the rare occasion that I actually put mascara on that Sunday morning or was brave enough to attempt to apply it in the car while Eric was driving—mascara and lip stains are dangerous to apply in the car you know!).

Do I chance people seeing my blubbery face or do I just come across as rude and sit down quickly bending over as if to grab something out of my purse so people can’t see my face?

Then I remember Nancy

I remember when I was very young, maybe elementary school age, I would be in church singing along to the music, and I would see this lady cry during praise and worship. She did it every time. I don’t know why, but I would just sit there and stare at her sometimes. I couldn’t figure out why she was crying. So one day I asked my mom, “Hey mom, why does Nancy always cry during praise and worship? Is she sad?” I can’t remember my mom’s exact words, but she tried to explain to me that Nancy was not sad. Quite the opposite actually. My mom said she was crying because she was happy and because she loved God so much.

I didn’t understand then. It wasn’t until I was older and experienced some of the same emotions myself that I understood. Remembering Nancy has helped me process my reaction as an adult. It helps me to say, “It’s okay if I cry during praise and worship. I’m not crazy, and I’m not alone. Remember Nancy? She cried too.”

Why I cry

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Funny Friday: Super Bowel

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Super Bowel

Funny Friday: Super Bowel

My mom sent me this pic this past Sunday for Super Bowl. I just hope that nobody truly did have a super bowel Sunday. That’s just gross.

“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” Jeremiah 4:19 (AKJV)

Keep Your Eyes and Focus on Jesus

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Keep Your Eyes and Focus on Jesus

It’s easy to lose spiritual focus and get distracted when things don’t seem to be going our way. It’s especially true when we see or experience injustices, trouble, unethical behavior or wrongdoing. However, the Bible encourages us that even, and especially in those times, we should keep our focus and our eyes fixed on Jesus.

God has been showing me some of that lately. I tend to get more frustrated and discouraged when I rely on myself and my own strength instead of remembering that I have a God that will give me the strength I need to handle and endure anything that comes my way if I’ll just look to him.

Sometimes things just get under our skin so much that we forget about God’s role and ability in the whole process. For example, state budget cuts and administrative changes have completely affected education where I live. I teach at a local community college, and we’ve experienced some significant negative effects as well.

Take this upcoming semester, for instance…

In my department alone, over half of the classes have been canceled, instructors are receiving fewer teaching assignments but still have increased workloads, and a tremendous amount of autonomy has been eliminated. It’s super frustrating for both professors and students alike. I had a class canceled this semester, and a good friend of mine did as well, even though she was guaranteed a certain number of classes in return for some uncompensated work that she did.

In these situations it’s extremely easy to focus on the injustice. It’s easy to spend time stewing and trying to think of ways that we can make things right, change our circumstances, and/or make people see the error of their ways. What I should be doing instead is just focusing on God and the things that are in my control. I have to choose to shift my focus from the negative to God.

I have to choose to shift my focus from the negative to God.

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Park’s tree

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Top 10 Posts of 2017

How to Pray for Unsaved Loved Ones...specific things to pray and what to expect

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement in 2017! Praying for you to be very Happy, Healthy & Prosperous in 2018 and all the years to come!

“Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually.” 3 John 1:2 (HCSB)

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Also, if you have benefited from any of these posts or if you know anyone that could benefit from them, please pay it forward and share them via the sharing links below! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

Christmas Geese

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Christmas Geese

A few years ago I heard this story as an analogy of why Jesus came to earth. I thought it was a perfect explanation that makes Jesus incarnation (becoming human) easier to understand. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas this year and a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2018!

Here is a longer, written version of the story that I found–the author is unknown:

There was once a man who didn’t believe in God and didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife did believe and raised their children to have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked her husband to come, but he refused as usual, “The Christmas story is nonsense!” he exclaimed. “Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That’s ridiculous!”

She and the children went, and he stayed home.

That night the wind began to blow and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he could see was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down before the fireplace to relax. Suddenly, there was a loud thump. Something had hit the window.

Then, a second thump. He looked out, but couldn’t see more than a few feet because of the blinding snow.

When the storm let up a little, he ventured out to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near the house was a flock of wild geese. Apparently they were flying south when they were caught in the blizzard and couldn’t go on.

They were lost and stranded on his farm, without food or shelter. Flapping their wings, they aimlessly flew around the field in low circles. Some had apparently flown into his window.

The man felt concern for the geese and wanted to help them.

The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It was warm and safe. They would be saved if they spent the night there waiting out the storm.

He opened the barn doors wide. Then he watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and enter. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them.

The man tried to get their attention by waving a lantern, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and brought out some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only became frightened and scattered in every direction except toward the barn.

Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be safe. “Why don’t they follow me?” he puzzled. “Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive?”

He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human. “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. When he released his goose, it flew through the flock and straight into the safety of the barn. One by one the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed loudly in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!” Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier that evening, “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”

Suddenly, it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese–blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realized. As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet. Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about, why Christ had come.

Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first real prayer: “Thank You, Lord, for coming in human form to get me out of this world and leading me to a better one.”

Happy, Healthy & Prosperous

Life Skills for Success ~ Pressing Toward the Mark

Category Archives: General

What if the Teaching Topic Isn’t Relevant to Me?

What if the Teaching Topic Isn’t Relevant to Me?