Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Learn Of Me


 
 
Learn Of Me

            For a short time in my young life I had the privilege of living with a woman who had been a kindergarten school teacher for more than thirty years and who began her beloved career in a one room school house.
            She started out at the age of twenty-one in a Washington rural community. And her bright blue eyes twinkled as she shared with laughter  her first experience as a new teacher there. But also of the contract they must sign and the very strict rules to teach and to live their personal lives.
         “Those rules by today’s standards may look way too strict and unreasonable, but we considered them with honor for the highest standards of our teaching the children.”  
   
    Mildred dug around in her cupboard of old treasures and pulled a yellowed piece of paper and read a few of those old time rules to me.
   
    “Men teachers may take one evening a week for courting purposes, two evenings a week if they go to church regularly. After ten hours of school, the teacher may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.”

     That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 NLT

    There is one thing for sure, life is unsure and often unfair. And the rules man makes for us to live our lives are often prejudiced and unfair. Not only that they can change to fit the accepted way of current culture demands.

            But we can rest assured God has given us His time tested truths to live by and to define the way we should navigate the very best way for our life. His commandments never need to be updated or changed over time. God’s commands fit perfectly today for everyone, for every generation as they did thousands of years ago.

            This dear teacher, who taught me so many valuable lessons. I felt sad to hear her tell how for a time she had to walk away from teaching of her beloved children. She met the love of her life and they wanted to get married, but those old rules said she had to quit.

            “I could have broken the rules and been sneaky, but what would that say to the children? And besides― God would know,” she said quietly.

            Mildred did get married, raised three children and then to her delight and that of many generations of children went back to teaching school until the age of seventy!

             “This is what Christianity is for―to teach men the Art of Life. And its whole curriculum lies in one word-‘Learn of Me’.”―Henry Drummond The Golden Book of Henry Drummond

“Learn Of Me” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 23, 2014

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