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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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I am not only educating my students with the knowledge that they need in life, but the knowledge of who God is, and who they are in Christ. The latter will hopefully penetrate their hearts to make a decision to follow Christ and have a relationship with Him that will be for eternity.
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I expect that most people take time at several points during their life to ask themselves questions such as, “What am I doing with my life?” and “Why am I spending my time on this?” Sometimes we stay in the shallows and convince ourselves that our short-term needs or wants are justifications for our actions (regardless of whether we are leading sinful lives or not). However, when we take the time to dig deep and find the answers to those big questions, we often identify areas where change is probably appropriate for our short-term goals and our eternity goals. When my students ask “What do I need to know this math for?” that is a great opportunity to dig deep with them!
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I believe Dr. Ellen Black means that we should keep our eyes on the big picture of God and His purpose for our students. God entrusted the gospel to his followers to share with the world the hope we have in Christ Jesus and the message of reconciliation. As we teach, it is easy to get caught up in the lesson of the day, the unit, the summative assessments, etc. Dr. Ellen is calling us back to remember the hope that we have within us and to wholeheartedly share that hope with our students. Our goal is not just to teach them facts and figures, but also to help them draw close to God.
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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.