Oct 31, 2010

During Which the Author Praises God for Student Misbehavior?

If my students make a bad decision in class, they move down a rung on the consequence chart. Three more bad decisions and they find themselves landed in detention. Three detentions for the same bad decision gets them a long detention. Three long detentions gets a suspension.

I received a memo from the office this week stating how many detentions each of my students had received and what bad decisions they were given for.

Looking at the list, I remembered each and every one. I could think back to why the student had moved down to detention and what their reaction to the consequence. And after remembering those errors in judgment or impulses of the flesh, I couldn't help but praise God.

What? Praise God? For student misbehavior?

Not quite. I couldn't help but praise God that He doesn't keep such a list. He doesn't look back at all of the things that I've done wrong and decide, "Wow! He's been doing a pretty crappy job at this whole obedience thing. Maybe I should suspend him from my favor. And if he keeps up at this sin thing, maybe expulsion from My Kingdom is in store."

Praise God that He doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Praise God that my sins are removed as far as the East is from the West. Praise God that I have been set free from the power of sin and death, even though I forget sometimes.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Thank you Warren for this great thought. I felt that way sometimes in my teaching days and it always helped me reconcile with the child after the discipline. PS: We missed you at trick-or-treating last night.

Kendra said...

Thank you for this. :)