Saturday, September 23, 2006

The Slowest Ever!

I have been asked to teach the counseling class again. I was really hoping that this would happen, because I really enjoyed the last time that I was able to do that. (And, I have to say that it is a good sign, when you are asked to do something again... It means that they must not have hated me the first time I did it.) This time the topic is Progressive Sanctification in Counseling.

First I have to say that every time I am given a topic, I seem to be hit with all kinds of things in my life to help remind me of why God has really allowed me to teach this class. I can assure you that God has not allowed me to teach because of my great knowledge on a particular subject, or because of my amazing ability to present a lesson. No, no, that is most definitely not the case. The reality is that God allows me to teach because of my great need to learn and grow myself. Quite humbling, if you ask me.

When I was given the Idols of the Heart topic, God began to reveal in me all of these idols! I was full of them! I thought I was doing pretty good on this idolatry thing, but no! Far from it!

Well, this topic has been no different. From the time the teacher told me that I was going to be teaching Progressive Sanctification to this exact moment, as I am typing this post, God has shown me over and over again in these last few weeks, that I have not arrived. I am still in great need of Sanctification myself.

Second, I also have to tell you that I am the absolute slowest note writer -- ever! I hate to sound childish, but it takes me forever to complete a set of notes. As you can tell, it is Saturday night, and I have to teach tomorrow, and I am still making revisions. Crazy. I find that the most difficult thing is just coming up with a basic outline that makes sense to me. I will spend hours trying to formulate the flow of the lesson: all of the transitions between points, nice illustrations, etc. When I was a school teacher, I just needed the basic material, and I could wing the rest. It always came so naturally.

Truth is, I probably over prepare, but hey, these are adults that I am speaking to. It just seems so different!

Anyway, I better get back to work. I still need to practice teaching this thing 100 more times before I feel comfortable.

g'night...

2 comments:

  1. way cool uncle matt. hey my brother josh just got a job as a middle school english teacher and he told me yesterday he bought the dvd's of strongbad's emails to use for grammar lessons in class. i thought that was great, and it made me think of you :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. that is so cool about your brother.

    ReplyDelete

Leave a thought of your own.