Define: Teacher.

Through all the chaos of planning a wedding, and directing mid-guided teenagers, I find it awesome that God throws little reminders of my job in Mali and what I have to look forward to next year. I stumbled upon this verse a few weeks ago:

Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness- Psalm 86:11a

For the first time, the word TEACH stood out to me. I am a teacher, but for the past year I have struggled to know exactly what that means.

In the academic sense, a teacher is the one who teaches. That means they instruct, pass along new information, share knowledge, etc. and until this year- I had a pretty vague idea of what that means in practice.

Over the past year I came to realize that teaching is

Showing, not telling.

Creating learning opportunities, instead of shoving information at people.

Being present minded, not absent.

God works in much the same way. So many times I demand “tell me Lord” but instead he places situations in my life to allow me to learn for myself. Instead of letting me go the easy way- he allows me to learn and remember- sometimes though stress, sometimes through conversations with others, and sometimes through letting time and patience show me the way.

This summer is almost over- I am excited to be back in the classroom, back in my routine in Mali, and ready to face the changes ahead. I know no matter what God will be teaching me along the way- I just have to be prepared to learn.