Greetings Dear Reader,
One of the things you encounter as a teacher and a Christ
follower is that in school you must be very careful about the things you would
naturally say. Twice in the last two
weeks the subject of God has come up with students. The first time I was able to deflect the
subject to something acceptable it in the classroom from a legal standpoint.
The second time the idea of God caught me by surprise. We are studying insects and today we were
listing various types of insects. The
children were excited to talk about crickets, grasshoppers, and lightning
bugs. We talked about the parts of
insects; the head, the abdomen, and the thorax.
We discuss that they have six legs.
It was pointed out that they have the antennae.
Class was humming along and all of little minds were
participating and contributed. Then Lydia (not her real name) broad up another
insect. She has very politely if a Praying
Mantis was an insect. I, instead of
answering asked a question. I asked
Lydia if that Praying Mantis had six legs, antennae, and the body parts of an
insect. Lydia loudly proclaimed that it did.
I began to explain why the Praying Mantis is a very
interesting insect. At this point, Paul
(not his real name) raised his hand but did not wait for me to call on
him. He proclaimed loudly that I was not
allowed to talk about God or prayer in school.
He made it very clear to me that if I did not stop talking about praying
he would tell me.
So here was my dilemma: how does one explain the difference
between the Praying Mantis and praying?
I chose to take the risk of explaining the difference between the word prey
and pray. I realize that the Praying
Mantis is spelled like the prayer we offered to God. Unfortunately, so did Paul.
At this point I tried to explain to Paul that the Mantis
only had that name because of how it held its arms when it was hunting. Paul insisted that I was still talking about
for prayer. Fortunately, a very
intelligent young girl named Siyanna (not her real name) came to my
rescue. She pointed out that there were
many words that had more than one meaning and that this could be one of them.
This seemed to mollify Paul and we went on with a
lesson. It troubles me greatly that
children who so desperately need to understand prayer and how it works have
learned that the word itself is not a good thing. I will never violate the law and the school
classroom by talking about prayer. I
will, however, constantly pray for these young children who need to see how
much God loves them. We need to
understand his compassion, mercy, and grace to face a world we’re talking about
talking to him is seen as either foolish or forbidden. I respect the institution that has given me a
job and I understand the need to obey the rules. This does not prevent my heart on the
yearning for everyone I encounter, especially children to see the love that
Christ offers them.
This motivates me to pray, show these children love, and
teach them to think. It also makes me
understand that the Praying Mantis may have caused the fodder to about
prayer. I will not take advantage of the
situation but it will teach me to be kinder, gentler, and to find ways to live the
Gospel without saying a word.
I have always loved the insect called the Praying Mantis. Today I appreciate it more and the lessons it
has to teach me. There is no substitute
for looking at the beauty of creation and finding a way to catch hold of the Creator.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
Bookings at aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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