It’s All Elementary

Before the birth of my first child, I was a second grade teacher. I loved to teach and poured my heart into it. Each week, I spent hours writing lesson plans for the weeks to come. In lesson plan books, there are blocks for each subject taught each day. At the top of that block, we, as teachers, were required to write that lesson’s objective. The objectives to be taught were given to us by the state. So anything we taught had to match a specific objective; otherwise, it was considered a waste of time.

My fellow teachers and I would often find fun movies or games we wanted to do and would hunt for creative ways to make them fit our objectives, but sometimes they just wouldn’t work.

We are like that with God. He has given us an objective, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 28:19 (KJ) That is the great commission God has given us. So we must ask ourselves if the things we are doing each day are meeting the objective. Taking care of our families and teaching them to love Jesus meets the objective. Criticizing our spouse about not cutting the grass does not. Holding the door open for the person behind you even when you are in a hurry meets the objective. Making it obvious with your body language that your cashier at the grocery store is taking too long does not.

Sometimes we try to make things fit the objective. We gossip about a friend under the guise of being concerned. But as much as we try, it does not fit the objective. So, like those movies I had to leave off of my lesson plans, those things that don’t meet the objective are a waste of time.

How are you spending the time God has given you? Are you spending time each day to make sure your activities meet the objective?

Matthew 28:19 KJ
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

1 Peter 4:11 NIV
If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

John 14:21 NIV
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

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