You Make a Difference: Terrific TeachersSample

Does It Even Matter?

He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. ZEPHANIAH 3:17 NIV

Susan couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t weaving stories. Even as a small child, she found comfort in her imagination, escaping to other worlds when the one she lived in was too harsh. She was the first daughter of a fire-and-brimstone preacher who was far more liberal with his belt than he was with his affection. She learned to be small and silent to survive, hiding from his fury until she was a mere shadow, hardly a girl at all.

Somehow she discovered that with a pen and paper in her hand, she was reborn. She retreated from her father’s rage into the world of words, lying beneath her bed or hiding in the corner of the closet, writing, writing, always writing. Like so many girls who grow up with abusive fathers, she instinctively found a husband who continued the pattern. This man, though, didn’t leave physical wounds. He left emotional ones instead. Still, she kept writing, scribbling away in the dark early mornings while her children slept.

Eventually, a miracle happened: all those words turned into a book, and a major publisher printed it. Her husband was convinced that riches would follow. The book was beautiful and received glowing reviews, but it sold only a few thousand copies. After that, his eyes always held disappointment. Then, a few years later, another miracle happened. A smaller publisher discovered her work and offered her a new contract. When the advance copy of the new book arrived in the mail, it felt like a resurrection. Filled with joy, she took it to her husband and placed it in his hands. He turned it over once before handing it back to her. "That's nice,” he said without smiling. Susan looked down at her beautiful book and thought of the work that had gone into it, and then she looked back at the man she loved, who seemed incapable of seeing any worth in her work beyond the money she could earn. She knew she had a choice. She could decide who determined the value of her work: her husband or God.

Jesus knew what it felt like to have His work diminished by those closest to Him. The final paragraphs of Matthew 13 show how the people of Jesus’ hometown responded to His work. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary?” (Matthew 13:55 NIV). Jesus, however, did not let the lack of support stop Him. He knew His work mattered to God, and that was enough. If you wait to find affirmation for your work from others, you may very well wait a long time. But your work matters to God. He is proud of you. God’s eyes are always filled with delight when He looks down on you. He never ceases to rejoice over you with singing.

My Father, sometimes the criticisms I endure as an educator feel far from grace. Help me to remember that my work is for You alone and that all You ask of me is that I serve from a place of love and offer You my best. Then, tender Savior, grant me the peace to leave all of it—my successes, my failures, the painful wounds I receive as I serve—in Your loving care. Amen.