Never Say Never ~Teachable Tuesday~

In a former blog life I used my own "memes" to encourage myself to write. While bouncing around looking for Tuesday memes this morning I finally decided to return to my own meme idea. Wonder if anyone else wants to join in... should we make this a big thing? I can add a linky thing at the end if need be... just let me know.

Often when I wrote about "teachable" moments I highlighted our homeschooling lifestyle using the kids to show the lessons of being teachable. However, I think it's that very lifestyle that has helped me to become more teachable.

Once upon a time there lived a young girl. She dreamed of the day she would teach in her very own classroom. She would move back to her hometown and teach in the very school which she had attended. Over the years things changed. Mind you, she still wanted to teach, but maybe not back home, after all there was a young man to consider now. Soon they finished school, married and found a home. Alas, her own classroom was not to be, but she did "get to" substitute in classrooms throughout the county. (That's another whole blog post!) Eventually by the next year she did have her very own classroom. And her very own pregnancy. And her very own pre-term labor. And her very own bed rest.

During this time her principal tried to encourage her to come back after baby was born. Okay, maybe not full time, but why not as a kindergarten teacher. This young woman was flattered that her skills were desired, but she wasn't sure.

Then came "THE DAY"... "B DAY"... or the birth of their son. Once that warm little bundle landed in her arms she knew there was no turning back. She wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. She took "early retirement." She also informed a family friend and church elder that "she had told God she would never teach again." To which he replied with great deals of laughter. After he picked himself up from the floor he suggested that it might not be wise to tell God "never" because He, in His infinite wisdom, might have plans of which she knew nothing.

Ah yes... and thus began the next 22 years of life where I taught every single year. I taught Sunday School, I taught breastfeeding moms, I taught by homeschooling our fourn children, I taught childbirth classes, and I taught co-ops. I even taught for a short period in a kindergarten... but in a small Christian school where my youngest at that time could come in with me.

I learned. God is always wanting us to learn. He makes our lives to be full of "teachable moments," some of which are brief and others last for decades. I have learned that to be teachable is to allow God to use me and for that I am grateful.

Blessings, Kim