The Underteacher
“As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.”
Chapter 32—Preparation
“Study to show thyself approved unto God.”
The child’s first teacher is the mother. During the period of greatest susceptibility and most rapid development his education is to a great degree in her hands. To her first is given opportunity to mold the character for good or for evil. She should understand the value of her opportunity, and, above every other teacher, should be qualified to use it to the best account. Yet there is no other to whose training so little thought is given. The one whose influence in education is most potent and far-reaching is the one for whose assistance there is the least systematic effort.
Those to whom the care of the little child is committed are too often ignorant of its physical needs; they know little of the laws of health or the principles of development. Nor are they better fitted to care for its mental and spiritual growth. They may be qualified to conduct business or to shine in society; they may have made creditable attainments in literature and science; but of the training of a child they have little knowledge. It is chiefly because of this lack, especially because of the early neglect of physical development, that so large a proportion of the human race die in infancy, and of those who reach maturity there are so many to whom life is but a burden.
Upon fathers as well as mothers rests a responsibility for the child’s earlier as well as its later training, and for both parents the demand for careful and thorough preparation is most urgent. Before taking upon themselves the possibilities of fatherhood and motherhood, men and women should become acquainted with the laws of physical development—with physiology and hygiene, with the bearing of prenatal influences, with the laws of heredity, sanitation, dress, exercise, and the treatment of disease; they should also understand the laws of mental development and moral training.
This work of education the Infinite One has counted so important that messengers from His throne have been sent to a mother that was to be, to answer the question, “How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?” (Judges 13:12), and to instruct a father concerning the education of a promised son.
Never will education accomplish all that it might and should accomplish until the importance of the parents’ work is fully recognized, and they receive a training for its sacred responsibilities.
The necessity of preparatory training for the teacher is universally admitted; but few recognize the character of the preparation most essential. He who appreciates the responsibility involved in the training of the youth, will realize that instruction in scientific and literary lines alone cannot suffice. The teacher should have a more comprehensive education than can be gained by the study of books. He should possess not only strength but breadth of mind; should be not only whole-souled but large-hearted.
He only who created the mind and ordained its laws can perfectly understand its needs or direct its development. The principles of education that He has given are the only safe guide. A qualification essential for every teacher is a knowledge of these principles and such an acceptance of them as will make them a controlling power in his own life.
Experience in practical life is indispensable. Order, thoroughness, punctuality, self-control, a sunny temper, evenness of disposition, self-sacrifice, integrity, and courtesy are essential qualifications.
Because there is so much cheapness of character, so much of the counterfeit all around the youth, there is the more need that the teacher’s words, attitude, and deportment should represent the elevated and the true. Children are quick to detect affectation or any other weakness or defect. The teacher can gain the respect of his pupils in no other way than by revealing in his own character the principles which he seeks to teach them. Only as he does this in his daily association with them can he have a permanent influence over them for good.
For almost every other qualification that contributes to his success, the teacher is in great degree dependent upon physical vigor. The better his health, the better will be his work.
So wearing are his responsibilities that special effort on his part is required to preserve vigor and freshness. Often he becomes heart-weary and brain-weary, with the almost irresistible tendency to depression, coldness, or irritability. It is his duty not merely to resist such moods but to avoid their cause. He needs to keep the heart pure and sweet and trustful and sympathetic. In order to be always firm and calm and cheerful, he must preserve the strength of brain and nerve.
Since in his work quality is so much more important than quantity, he should guard against overlabor—against attempting too much in his own line of duty; against accepting other responsibilities that would unfit him for his work; and against engaging in amusements and social pleasures that are exhausting rather than recuperative.
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/29.1443#1443
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for guiding, correcting, and encouraging us to fully develop into the beings You designed us to be. Please educate us to learn of You through nature and Scripture, to faithfully observe the laws of health, to engage in that which is both useful and honorable, and to preserve our minds and bodies that we might build solid characters that will reflect You. Regardless of circumstances, please bless us to sing songs of hope and faith and praise. Please bless us with that faith in Your Word, which is the key to knowledge and power for a well-ordered life. Bless us with faith in Your Holy Spirit, which leads to true understanding and the power to remain faithful to You in life here and throughout eternity. As we learn, please grant us the wisdom and power to obey You from a heart of love. Thank You for being a real Father to us and for loving us the way that You do. Please grant us the love for You that You deserve and which will be a blessing both to others and to ourselves, as we serve them, being faithful in the small things and wholly relying on You. Please grant to us that greatest of all wisdom, which gives quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, which brings us in touch with others, and enables us to arouse their better nature and inspire them to a higher life that we all may live the life of Heaven on Earth. Thank You, for we pray all these in the magnificent and worthy name of Thy dear Son, Jesus, our personal Savior. Amen.
****
Help Uchee Pines launch Gospel Radio Station WHGR 91.5 FM for Hurtsboro and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.
Visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio
****
I coordinate wonderful health and worshipful events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For more details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events
Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp.
NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom.
Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study.
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.