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What does the lecturer mean when she says you are here to educate your students for eternity?
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We are educating children to know God, our Father, for the future. We are eternal beings made in the image of God and we have a future with him. We must educate them to know who they are in Christ and to know what is yet to come. Our eternity resides with Him! Educating students about this will impact not just the current generation, but many generations after.
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One of my favorite object lessons was done by Francis Chan and I like to recreate it every other year with my students. He has a long string that he just keeps unwinding and then he asks people to start unwinding and essentially it makes a giant web. When it seems that the string could go on forever he stops and asks one participant to pinch about an inch from the end. He then says that inch is our entire life on earth; the rest (unendingly) is eternity. There is so much value and faith in the philosophy of eternity and eternal choices.
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I think what she means is we are here to educate students on how we are a creation of God, we have an eternal soul, we are separated from God because of our sin and our purpose is to know God. I have a responsibility as a Christian school teacher to make sure students learn that in my room through the art lessons that I teach.
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When a pebble is tossed into a still pond, the ripples radiate outward until they eventually reach the shore. The scope and magnitude of my influence as an educator has rippling effects that I cannot fathom. It is a tremendous privilege to be used of God as a teacher, but comes with tremendous responsibility. When the lecturer states that we are here to teach our students for eternity, it causes me to shudder. Not if fear of the daily task set before me with concerns of classroom management, curriculum delivery, and assessment, but in fear of missing the opportunity to pour the Love of Christ and the Truth of the Gospel into each life that sits before me.
My oldest son’s favorite quote is, “You will miss 100 percent of the shots you never take”. As a Christian Educator I want to make sure that I am taking every opportunity that is presented to shoot for the goal of saved lives. Yes, I need to teach content and skill sets, yes, I need to maintain a growth mindset in a learning rich environment with minimal distractions and a wealth of opportunity to grow and take risks with problem solving. But, the clincher is, I don’t want to toss pebbles in the pond, I want to drop boulders so the Love of Christ and the message of the Gospel will breech the shorelines and flood the hearts and minds of my students to the point of saved souls.
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Well…the answer is simple. There are two eternal destinations, heaven or hell. Without a relationship with God, people go to hell (separation from God). The goal of Christian educators should be to help sow the seeds of God’s Truths, help germinate, and hopefully, see students salvation. This life is temporary. A life with Christ is forever. A life without Christ is eternal damnation. We educate to have more brothers and sisters in Christ forever.
