Section 4—The Growing Personality
Chapter 22—The School and the Teacher (Part 5)
Schoolroom Atmosphere Affects Students—The religious life of a large number who profess to be Christians is such as to show that they are not Christians…. Their own hereditary and cultivated traits of character are indulged as precious qualifications when they are death-dealing in the influence over other minds. In plain, simple words they walk in the sparks of their own kindling. They have a religion subject to, and controlled by, circumstances. If everything happens to move in a way that pleases them and there are no irritating circumstances that call to the surface their unsubdued, unchristlike natures, they are condescending and pleasant and will be very attractive. When there are things that occur in the family or in their association with others which ruffle their peace and provoke their tempers, if they lay every circumstance before God and continue their request, supplicating His grace before they shall engage in their daily work as teachers, and know for themselves the power and grace and love of Christ abiding in their own hearts before entering upon their labors, angels of God are brought with them into the schoolroom.
But if they go in a provoked, irritated spirit into the schoolroom, the moral atmosphere surrounding their souls is leaving its impression upon the children who are under their care, and in the place of being fitted to instruct the children, they need one to teach them the lessons of Jesus Christ.—Christian Education, 149, 150 (1893) (Fundamentals of Christian Education, 265, 266.)
Patience and Adaptability Needed (counsel to a teacher)—You do not make a success as a teacher because you have not patience and adaptability. You do not know how to deal with human minds or how to impart knowledge in the best way. If your expectations are not met, you are impatient. You have had every advantage of education, but nevertheless, you are not a wise teacher. It is very disagreeable to you to inculcate ideas into dull minds. In your youth you needed discipline and training. But the spirit which you manifested under correction has spoiled your life.—Letter 117, 1901.
Parents to Cooperate With Teachers—A neglected field represents the neglected mind. Parents must come to view this master in a different light. They must feel it their duty to cooperate with the teacher, to encourage wise discipline, and to pray much for the one who is teaching their children. You will not help the children by fretting, censuring, or discouraging them; neither will you act a part to help them to rebel and to be disobedient and unkind and unlovable because of the spirit you develop.—Manuscript 34, 1893.
Responsibility of the Religious Community—There can be no more important work than the proper education of our youth. We must guard them, fighting back Satan, that he shall not take them out of our arms. When the youth come to our colleges, they should not be made to feel that they have come among strangers who do not care for their souls. There should be fathers and mothers in Israel who will watch for their souls as they that must give account.
Brethren and sisters, do not hold yourselves aloof from the dear youth, as though you have no particular concern or responsibility for them. You who have long professed to be Christians have a work to do to patiently and kindly lead them in the right way. You should show them that you love them because they are younger members of the Lord’s family, the purchase of His blood.—The Review and Herald, August 26, 1884. (Fundamentals of Christian Education, 89, 90.)
Meeting Obdurate Hearts and Perverse Dispositions—Our Redeemer had a broad comprehensive humanity. His heart was ever touched with the known helplessness of the little child that is subject to rough usage, for He loved children. The feeblest cry of human suffering never reached His ear in vain. And everyone who assumes the responsibility of instructing the youth will meet obdurate hearts, perverse dispositions, and his work is to cooperate with God in restoring the moral image of God in every child. Jesus, precious Jesus—a whole fountain of love was in His soul.—Christian Education, 149 (1893). (Fundamentals of Christian Education, 265.)
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/77.963#1030
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the privilege of prayer, knowing that through the name of Your Son we may expect what we ask, because we ask according to Your will to be like Jesus. Please bless us never to be contolled by circumstances. Please grant us a pure, wholesome, consistent Christian life, which is obtained by studying Your Word and which is the highest education that any earthly being can obtain. Like Jesus, please bless us to not be conformed to this world, but to be truly transformed into the persons You would have us be that we might honor You. Please bless us truly to contemplate the life of Jesus and to allow Your Word to develop within us that true religion, which ennobles the mind, refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes us patient partakers of the vibrant health, purity, and holiness of Heaven. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DID YOU KNOW THIS…? And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 KJV—[The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]
Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FREE HEALTH TALK* open to the public Thursdays at 5pm at Country Life Natural Foods Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant, 1217 Eberhart Avenue, Columbus, GA.
Thursday, June 18: Children’s Health
*Exception: $10 for any cooking class
WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025, for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.
If you want to support Christian radio programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio
Thank you!!!
****
I coordinate wonderful health and worship 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 event 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 (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).
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.