Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. Isaiah 55:13, NIV

Was I hearing this ten-year-old correctly? The principal had just spoken to him about his behavior and Tommy’s rude and disrespectful response to him nearly curled my hair. Tommy was well known for his hot temper and disrespect. I knew him as a boy who constantly disrupted my classes year after year. Throughout his elementary years in my classes and again when I taught him at the middle school, he always acted the same. And when adults corrected him, he responded as he had to this principal or as though he didn’t care.

Many years later I heard about Tommy, now a young man. The report was that he had received Christ, and was living for Him. Tommy’s behavior and his perspective had completely changed. He was a “new creature.”

Sometimes we forget that God can transform a person, and often does. It is so easy to react to our students as their sinful nature deserves. We forget that God isn’t finished with them yet, no more than He has finished with us. Those students we teach, though they don’t appear that way now, just might be Christ’s chosen servants in the making.

As Christian educators, our prayers can express our faith that God will change these children. Ask God to give you new “eyes” with which to look at your students. Ask God to help you see them as He does.

I thank You, Lord, for bringing change to my heart and life. Please help me cooperate with what You are doing today. Amen.

Copyright Shirley Wilson.

Shirley is a retired member and former board member of Christian Educators.