Saturday, January 11, 2014

Darkness Only Overcomes When the Light is Turned Off.

Darkness Only Overcomes When the Light is Turned Off. 





I want to talk about lies this week. Lies are what break us from truth. Lies can take a beautiful woman or man and make them feel like a fat, worthless, stupid individual that will never amount to anything worth living for. Truth is what sets us free from all of that. Darkness only overcomes light when the light is turned off. Love is light when it comes to lies. Lies say, "ugly", Love says, "beautiful". Darkness says, "be scared of me", Light says, "come to me". Love is the driving force of who we are when we serve people in a non-selfish, non-egocentric way. Love is when we correct the lies and call out the beauty. Love is to bring out the best in the people around us and lead them to truth.

How Truth Can Set Our Students Free

I want to tell everyone a story about a young lady who I was instructing in a summer math class. This student was smart, creative, and very energetic. She was going about her math as usual but I started to notice she was struggling with some new content. As she struggled I could see her posture and whole countenance change. She went from being bubbly to being sad. Her shoulders began to droop and her head finally just rested on the table not moving for a few minutes. I knew in my heart she must be struggling with lies about herself. We all struggle at some point in our lives and for many people math is that "some point". So, I went over to help her. I asked her what the problem was and she said she was just to stupid to do math. She said she could not do math and she knew it. Right there I knew some how lies were getting into her head and she was believing them. At this point I said, "Who is telling you that you are stupid? I know you are not stupid you are very smart."  She answered with this statement, and it broke my heart, "Everyone says I am stupid. Even my math teacher says I am not good at math, and he knows I cannot do it." I then knew I could combat these lies with Truth. Truth sets us free, remember? So, I told her again that I knew she could do math, and I told her how smart and intelligent I knew she was. I then took out a whiteboard and gave it to her, and told her to write down the words "I am Smart". There was major hesitation when I asked her to do this. She "knew" she was dumb, and even simply writing out the words "I am Smart" felt like she was lying to herself. When we think lies are truth is when we have become deceived. Nonetheless, Truth will always reign supreme. She finally wrote out the words and she felt great doing it. Over the course of the summer this young lady started telling herself she was smart, and she started to believe it. I am sure you can guess the rest of the story, but math started clicking in her head as she began to realize and internalize this new truth. In the end truth came through and the lies were shot down.

Summary/Practical Application

Lies will take hold of a person and trap them to the point where is feels like there is no escape. As teachers we need to bring the Truth to our students. Many students will come to our classrooms filled with lies telling them they are worthless, stupid, and no good. Teachers need to be combating those lies not agreeing with them. So I challenge you in your teaching career to call the greatness out in your students. Tell them they are smart, encourage them, speak life into their situations and, most importantly, shine light into their darkness. Love your students selflessly and show them you are their biggest fan. Remember that truth sets us free and Light overcomes darkness.

5 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more with this post, it really touched me. This is very well written and I hope that every teacher instills in children that they are worthy and that they can do anything if they want to do it. So many students come into our classrooms discouraged and full of darkness because that's all that has filled their lives. It is our job to make the difference.

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    1. Wow thank you so much for your comment. You are a blessing. I believe the classroom is where a child can really get set free getting new and true mindsets about who they are! You are so right it is our job to make a difference!

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  2. You would probably enjoy Peter Johnston's writing related to fixed and dynamic frames of learning. It is valuable as teachers to consider the impact of our words as well as recognize how students perceive themselves and what we can do to support them in having a dynamic frame of learning.

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    1. Awesome I will have to look that up thank you so much!!

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