Their First Teacher

Their First Teacher

What is a teacher? The Oxford dictionary definition is as simple as someone who teaches school. 

When we step back and reflect on the teachers in our lives, we see the influence stretches beyond the classroom. A teacher's lesson plan becomes a canvas for those with a natural will to learn. You may have been blessed to have many great teachers who have painted beauty to remember for a lifetime.

Teachers have an influence in that they give you something intangible that no one can take from you. Their guidance changes your trajectory and outlook while also expanding on what you already know. A close friend can teach you how to love in action, a pastor can teach you hope in hard times, a mentor can teach you how to follow their path of success in your own unique path. A father can teach you foundational hard work and resilience. A mother can teach important values throughout your journey. The impact of a teacher has the power to transform your future into new heights unimaginable.

Mother is defined as a woman related to a child that brings them up with care and affection. Before you are old enough for school, your mother, the one that birthed you into this world, is your first teacher.

I never imagined that I would be a teacher let alone a mother, yet here I am instructing two beautiful bright eyed curious sponges. Doing my best to navigate them in this world as safe and healthy as I can. Learning how to be a better me, growing in knowledge, compassion and mentorship each day. With God's help I'm learning how to not only live out the fruits of the spirits but to teach and instill them in my girls as well. I'm a teacher without a teaching degree because I have to teach right and wrong before the world grips them down to an unsavory dead end.

I have been blessed that God has guided me to some very essential teachers. Some left good examples to follow and some left examples of what not to do. The greatest teacher is perfect in all ways the one who gave his only son, came to earth as man, sinless yet died for our sins. Disciple maker. Prince of peace and way maker. Jesus our Lord and savior and our father. Head of our household. Learning from my mistakes and with the grace of God, trying a different way to teach it better to the next generation. Teaching discernment to know what examples of truth lead the right way. 

As a mother, whether we agree or not we have a responsibility to teach our children. Because whether we write out a lesson plan each morning or not, our babies are watching our every move. They will do what they see when faced with the same situations they witness us face. They will handle their anger the way we handle our anger. They will handle their pain the way we handle our pain. The beautiful thing about motherhood is that you don't need to write out a lesson plan or need a degree to teach the next generation. It's also a scary thing too, especially if you weren't prepared to teach. 

Think about your little one. They came into this world as a baby, brand new. 

Close your eyes and imagine that day they were born. Think about each one of your bundles of joy one at a time growing in their mama's belly. 

When they first came into the world. After the doctor pulled them into the light, mom was the first to hold them. What was once joined together as one has now entered the world connected now in spirit. 

Mama embraces her new joy

This sweet innocent baby is looking to you

In their eyes, in their ways, they need you 

To show them how to walk, talk, and eat.

Before they go to a babysitter or school

They learn how to form words into sentences from you.

Your embrace stays with them even when you step away

Did you say goodbye or did you disappear?

And somewhere in between we forget their personality formed around what we taught them subconsciously and consciously 

She's gone her whole life being a student of life 

Now it is her duty

Teaching them they are beautiful as they are before the world defines their beauty

Teaching them to love kindness before the world hardens their heart.

Teaching them self control to tame big emotions in little spaces.

Teaching them patience when things don't go their way in the time they choose.

Teaching them goodness when the world isn't always good to you.

A teacher gets further education so that they are trained to know exactly what to teach their student. 

We may not have grown up with the greatest teachers but we can still be the teacher we always wanted with God's greatest gifts

Grace and Faith

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works; lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained before that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father (Ephesians 2:18)