Every teacher I know struggles

Sometimes you find out surprising ways people get encouraged.

I was in a meeting with a group of Bible teachers at our church yesterday morning, and made an off-hand comment about how hard it is for me to pull lesson material together, and how often I don’t get the last pieces in place until right before I teach.

One teacher, who I know puts in a lot of hard work to prepare lessons, expressed relief that I struggled, too. Perhaps he thought he was the only one who God “strung out” and whose prayers for guidance weren’t answered immediately. Perhaps he thought “experts*” don’t struggle with the details of blocking out lessons, figuring out strong introductions, decided which questions to use, or what application to emphasize.

Well, I do struggle. If it encourages you, I can remember only a few lessons that just “fell together” smoothly and well ahead of time. I’m often still churning things in my head and heart in the middle of delivering a lesson, because I still have time left and can choose to go one way or another. I get the sweats thinking about some topics and how to get after them. It’s work. It’s joyous overall, and I know God is using me, but it’s work.

My conviction now is that God knows I couldn’t really handle it any other way. I’d be proud, puffed up, and think I was something special. I know that God wants to use weak vessels so all the glory goes back to Him.

My reason to write this here is to encourage you if/when you struggle with study and preparation and delivery. God is sometimes early, but never late. Lean on Him, dear teachers, and count on His faithfulness. After all, He loves your students much, much more than you do, and will see that His sheep are fed.

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*"Expert" has been described as "ex" (meaning former) and "spert" (meaning drip under pressure).