萝莉视频

A Teacher's Devotional

Halfway

Scenes from mid-semester:

Scene #1: In my classroom, I number my days.

No, I mean that literally—every lesson has a number. That’s how I keep track of where we are in the semester and what resources I need for a lesson.

Just before Fall Break, I said to my Introduction to Psychology class, “I have 35 lessons to teach you this semester, and this is lesson 18. We’re halfway.”

The students gasped. “Oh, no!” they said. Half the semester is gone, and there is so much to be done.

Scene #2: When I grade, I divide the pile into equal manageable groups: 5 groups of 10 quizzes, or 6 groups of 3 papers. Then, as I grade, I say to myself, “That’s a quarter of the way! Now, that’s halfway!” It helps to see measurable progress, instead of a task of unknown length.

I suspect that mid-semester feels different to me than it does to my students because I can see what’s coming better than they can. At this point in the semester, every class has turned in a major paper, but I haven’t yet returned the papers with feedback. So, while I have experience teaching these ideas to students and know what it will take to reach the end of the course, they are experiencing it for the first time.

It’s possible to feel limited, small, and insufficient in the middle of the semester—a feeling evoked by Moses in Psalm 90. But Moses offers two prayers for us, and our students, whenever we feel especially mortal.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:17)

One of the challenges of education is that learning doesn't always follow our schedules. We’ve scheduled mid-semester and final exams, but the work of our hands is not always established within our time frames. At mid-semester, neither our students nor we can see the full consequences of the work we're doing. But this education is not the work of our hands alone. We ask God to establish what we cannot finish, and to continue the work long after the grades are submitted.

Read and Recall: Psalm 90:17

Sing or Listen: O God, Our Help in Ages Past, SDA Hymnal #103

Pray: “Lord, teach us to number our days, and establish the work of our hands.”