As we prepare for another year of learning, I’m prayerfully returning to these thoughts… How would Jesus teach? If Jesus taught my children, what would this coming school year look like?
They called him the Master Teacher. So to thoughtfully, mindfully, look to His example…
Jesus taught in His Father’s Creation
With the wind blowing against His cheek, the sun on His face. Standing in waving wheat fields. Sitting under gnarled old fig trees. Watching the sparrows. He taught from the world around Him. Using his Father’s world as the classroom, all of creation served an object lesson.
If the heavens declare the glory of God…if Jesus taught in nature, from nature…perhaps nature, out in His world, is where I too should be teaching.
Jesus taught amidst the people
Hurting, broken people. His disciples learned as Jesus lived amongst the people. How can I teach my children amidst the world’s people? How might I teach them through ministry, through service, through living an other-oriented life? Jesus taught as he touched, because all there really is to learn is how to love. How will we learn how to love people this year?
To teach like Jesus means to teach not only with a passion for people, but to teach amongst the people, loving the people.
Jesus taught by personal example
Jesus taught how to love and touch and heal. What does my example daily teach my children? Do I spend more time considering my example—or considering curriculum choices? More time on lesson plans or the plans of my own heart? If my example were the only resource my children had to study from the next quarter, what would they learn?
My example teaches louder than any of my lessons.
Jesus taught from Scripture
From what the prophets said. From the law. From His Father’s heart. How much does the Bible weave through our thinking, our reading, our discussions? Do I know Scripture sufficiently that it comes naturally to me as I teach? Are His words woven through my words?
To teach like Jesus is to teach with God’s Word as part of my words.
His curriculum was only four resources: nature, people, personal example, and Scripture. And with that He taught disciples who went into all the world with His message of hope and good news and radical love.
Jesus perfectly demonstrated how to live out Deuteronomy 6: 7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
I need to pattern my lessons plans after the Planner of these little people. Maybe my teaching this coming year is as simple as “WWJD?”
Lord, make me a teacher like You—natural, captivating, enlightening, loving–godly. I want to teach like You would. Let “WWJD” guide me into being a teacher after Your own heart.
an edited repost from the archives
