For teachers here, today is Happy New Year day. They report to their schools this morning so they can be ready for kids’ first day and a year full of adventures in learning. I’m jealous. I loved teaching and now am on the sidelines looking in. I am praying with the three teachers in our family that all goes well, that they can be inspiration to their students, and that their students will appreciate the hard work teachers do to give kids choices in their future years.
Their paltry raise of 4% hardly makes a dent when inflation is making them all check to check pawns in our society. They don’t teach for pay, that’s for sure, and my retirement income after forty years of service as a teacher is making life decisions difficult for me. While others can look at things like longterm care and prepare for emergencies, I am as limited in funds as I was as a career teacher. My children, all teachers, may not even have Social Security to add to their “pension.” Soon, college for their own kids means eight years of real sacrifice. Doesn’t seem fair, somehow, but that’s the way education as a profession has always been–a labor of love.
Fortunately, for our family, they have the best compensation. Because they are strong in their faith, they and I know that God will provide riches that are not of this world. Ephesians 1:4 says: “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.” They teach not only music and life, they teach by example of love the most important lesson because God motivates them through love they impart to their students that God loves them and so do they.
I pledge to provide an encouraging Bible verse each day to remind them of their high calling as followers of Jesus in the hopes that through their efforts, their character, in every decision, they are motivated to give their best to the Savior and in their daily encounters with believers and future believers alike. May it compensate for what the world thinks is important. Sacrificial living is a challenge they know about personally, yet for the beauty of their musical talent, they will share with future generations the gifts they possess by God’s grace. To Paul, Nancy, and Mary, and all their colleagues, a hearty Happy New Year!
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