When I taught in a local public elementary school, the
district implemented the “Norms of Collaboration” or some such thing like that.
It was so funny, as an adult, to be
taught how to treat other people. My
team of teachers all shared a common workplace and taught the same grade. At times it felt like we were college girls
sharing a dorm room! We each had
designated storage places in that tiny room as well as a place to meet and
discuss team topics. The best part about
this team was that we were all like minded. We all liked a tidy workspace. We all liked having civilized meetings. Most importantly we loved to laugh
together. You should have heard us
during our lunch times. Lunch is the
only time where you can maybe 5 minutes of quiet when you are a teacher and we
packed those five minutes with huge amounts of deep, gut laughing. Anyone who spends any amount of time with kids
knows that sometimes you just need list:
humor. It looked totally
inconspicuous scribbled on the poster in marker. And of some
laughter to keep you going. Because
often times if you are not laughing, you are crying. At least on the inside. It’s true, ask a
teacher. Never mind, they are too good
to tell you the truth. Just trust
me.
So when the “norms” were introduced we thought they were
kind of redundant. We had no problems
speaking our minds and still being nice with each other. Naturally, we had to embrace these “norms”
with our usual humor. What do good,
law-abiding teachers do for fun? We
defaced the “norms” poster by adding our own norm to the course the one time
the district Superintendent comes to visit the school, she chooses our workroom
to visit. (insert forehead slap here) I think we all looked at each other with
wide eyes, terrified for her to see it. In
the end, she thought it was cute. (whew,
I was afraid I’d have to throw someone under the proverbial bus.)
Looking back, I can see that we respected each other. More than that, though, we loved each other
as sisters. We cared about each other
and the kids we served. However, that
begs the question, why did the district feel the need to bring these norms into
our schools? Apparently not everyone
enjoyed the same environment we had created in our workspace. Some people are just not respectful or nice to
others.
It has been heavy on my heart lately how much people are not
loving others. It’s all over the news of people doing hateful things and saying
hateful things. And these are so-called
Christians! I was reminded recently by a
very dear friend that it should always be love above everything else because
God is love. After talking with her, I
found myself drawn to a couple of verses:
“Dear friends, since
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” 1 John 4:11
“Teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus
replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the first
commandment. And the second is like it:
Love your neighbor as yourself. All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
These verses are so comforting to me. We live in a broken world. We will meet people everyday who do not know
or love Jesus. We are His hands to hug
those people. If you think about all
that God has done for us, how can you not see Him as the ultimate definition of
love?
I have been working on acting out these verses. I encourage you to do the same. God’s got plans for you. Maybe today’s goal is just to share some of
His love with someone.
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