You Make a Difference: Terrific TeachersSample

Finding Grace in Conflict

When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, He causes their enemies to make peace with them. PROVERBS 16:7 NIV

Each year in Sam’s third-grade class, students worked to collect three hundred beautiful words. To celebrate those words, Sam covered the back of his classroom door with chalkboard contact paper, where students wrote down the words as they discovered them. Hanging new contact paper on the back of the door was one of a thousand small tasks Sam preferred to have completed before the first student stepped foot in the room for the school year, but this year he had not been able to get to it right away.

Now, six weeks into the new school year, he sat behind the door, carefully pulling the backing off the sticky paper and smoothing out the wrinkles. The work kept his hands busy while his mind remained free to process the frustrating meeting he’d had with a coworker the previous afternoon. One of his students, Janie, was in danger of failing his class. He had worked with her at length on the multiplication and division of whole numbers, but no matter how much time he spent with her and how many words of encouragement he offered, she had not risen to the standards he had so clearly set for her.

Janie had a history of underperformance, which led her to receive some support from the resource staff despite having no documented learning disability, and her test scores looked good. It seemed to Sam that Janie had simply yet to develop the stamina required to dig deep and work hard. Her math grade suffered as a result. When the resource teacher learned of her grade, she requested a meeting with Sam, in which she lobbied hard for him to allow Janie to retake her most recent test. Sam felt that that was the wrong call and said so. In his opinion, Janie needed to feel the sting of a low grade to prompt her to work a bit harder.

Quickly, the meeting became heated. Sam had felt attacked and became defensive. Now, twenty-four hours later, the mindless task before him was allowing him space to find grace for his coworker. You know, he thought. We both care about this student. We both want her to succeed. We just have different ideas about how that is best accomplished.

Proverbs 16:7 promises that when we live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God, even our enemies live at peace with us. Sometimes the key to seeing the other side of an issue is allowing ourselves the space we need to see our adversary in a kinder light. A little bit of space, cloaked in prayer, makes room for God to lead us to a place of grace.

Father, my school is filled with human beings, which means there are days when we will disagree and hurt each other while educating the students in our care. Give me the wisdom to step back and take a break when I need it. As I take that space, meet me there and help me to see my coworkers through the eyes of grace. Let my mind be clear, my heart be merciful, and my words be gentle. Amen.