I’m currently teaching an Introduction to Digital Photography class at our local co-op. It’s a TON of work on top of my normal schedule because I’m not following a textbook, I’m just developing the class as I go along. And it’s definitely contributing to a whole different sort of “March Madness” in my house as I juggle this class and our normal homeschool demands. But one thing I’ve noticed is that, in trying to be a good photography teacher to these kids, I’m becoming a better photographer myself. In a way, the teacher becomes the student as you spend so many hours immersed in your subject – pulling together the best resources, finding great examples of every concept I want them to learn, going out and taking picture after picture myself to demonstrate each lesson – it is really making me know my subject well. And God has a message for all of us: the same idea holds true no matter what the subject. That which we devote our time to is what we will become better at or know best.
The conversation started out innocently enough. I was sharing my concerns about my youngest child’s learning struggles with my husband. I shared all that I am doing with her. All the “right” things. All the brain training and crossing the midline exercises and special curriculum, and how all of that still wasn’t yielding the results I had hoped to see: a child who could confidently read anywhere close to on “grade level.” (I’m not one to get hung up on such things when they are young, but at 10 those deficits start to be glaringly apparent in peer groups causing self-esteem issues.) Anyway, he, being a man, started in trying to “fix” the problem with some suggestions, and I found myself bristling. Why? Because everything he was suggesting we had already tried, with no success. He just didn’t know because I am there all day and he is not, and I study her all day, and he doesn’t get to because he is at work all day, and God used that moment to make me see that just like the photography class, I know my daughter better than anyone else because I have studied her more than anyone else. I have worked with her more than anyone else. I have seen her struggle and fail and struggle some more and finally succeed more than anyone else because, as a homeschool mom, I am immersed in HER. Sure, there may be others out there with therapies that would be helpful to her, and nothing says we can’t use them; but no one will ever know her better than me, except God Himself, and (the Lord willing) her husband someday. I needed that reminder.
The same is true of our relationship with God. The more time we take in His word, the more time we spend in the company of His people, the more time we spend serving the world, the better at it we will become and the more we will know Him. That was Paul’s goal, you know. He talks about it in Philippians 3, and says it directly in Philippians 3:10, “that I may know Him…” It’s easy in the madness of March or April or May or (does it ever really slow down?) to think that we will get to it someday. But that which we honor with our time is what is truly important to us. If you looked at a record of how you spent your time yesterday, how much time would God have, and how much time would your smart phone have? Or if not your smart phone then whatever your vice is. The point is that we become better at something by doing it over and over again. By reading about it. By studying it. By seeing what experts in the field have to say about it. By practicing it. How much of that do we do for God? How much of our time and energy and effort do we give Him and how amazing would it be if the answer was all of it? Or even most of it? That same passion that drives us to help our child become the best soccer player they can be or to overcome a learning problem should also drive us to a relationship with our Lord and Savior because His passion for you drove Him to death on a cross that you might live.
So maybe you are the homeschool mom who just needs the reminder that you know your kids better than anyone else. They are your subject, and you are well versed in them. You could teach this class with your eyes closed, so trust yourself and that hard-gained wisdom, and know that no one knows your kids better than you. But maybe you are the child of God who needs to be reminded that He loves you. You are HIS favorite subject. He’s well versed in you, too. But He’d like you to make Him your magnificent obsession. To get to know Him by heart. You can’t imitate Christ if you don’t know Him forward and backwards, and we are to be imitators of Christ. Not sure where to start? It has been said the best way to learn something well is to teach it, and so I offer you this in parting:
Or to offer another bit of advice from scripture, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. Teach, and you will learn!