Daily Lesson for September 6, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from James chapter 3 verses 1 through 5:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

Last week before the move something incredible arrived: a letter from my fifth grade homeroom teacher and favorite teacher of all time, Marilyn Jamison or, as I knew her over a quarter of a century ago, "Mrs. J".  

I've written about Mrs. J before here, talking about how her favorite saying, "Count your blessings," has stuck with me all these years. What else stuck was her hugely life-affirming spirit. She was a wise and encouraging woman and at a very awkward age of 10 or 11, she helped us all see the best in ourselves. 

Apparently she's still doing it. 

Mrs. J has been keeping up with me in recent years and got wind that I was headed to Fort Worth. The letter was a congratulations and also a kind of blessing, naming the qualities she saw in me as a student and assuring me of God's call upon my life. 

Is it any wonder why she has always, always been my favorite?

I don't know how many teachers I had over the years. Some, like Mrs. J, were positive and affirming, others were belittling and even abusive. In any case, I think on it and see just what a difference a teacher can make -- for good or for ill.  They can keep a a smoldering wick alive or break a fragile and bruised reed. There is so much in their words. There is so much in one little word.  Like the rudder in today's Lesson, they are small but can determine the direction of the whole ship. 

A lot was on the line when I first walked into Mrs. J's fifth grade classroom at Whiteside Elementary School. I would soon get my first pimple, sit for my first (and last) ill-fated perm, and have my first (not last) kiss. Mrs. J guided me through it. Her words of love and encouragement and life-affirmation still guide me. 

So yes, Mrs. J, I do still count my blessings. And I want you to know that I count you double.