“If”

If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will be done for you! Matthew 21:21

Our family is very fortunate to have lived in the same house for all our thirty two years in the East Cobb area. Our neighborhood is very dear as it is a sweet combination of the “older’ established families and the new families with children ranging in age from babies to college students.

Monday as I was watching the middle school kids sit and wait for the bus (which was late because it was the first day), a mom walked over and said, “Please pray for me and my girls. They are all in middle school this year, and I’ve heard middle school years are the worst! Kids can be so mean!” Before I caught myself, I said, “Worst three years of my life for each of my kids!”

Walking back home, my mind went back to the days I taught kindergarten when those innocent little faces appeared; some excited, some terrified, some crying, and others just in shock! Each one of them were so precious, and as teachers, we had no information upon which to base their educational wants and needs so we began our journey to know each child individually. Our job was to teach them, build self esteem, love them, dry tears, teach them to tie their shoes, offer help when they needed it, “learn them” as one father told me, and do our best to communicate with their parents strengths, weaknesses, or achievements.

Theses children all entered our classrooms on equal footing. In those days, it was rare that a parent called the office and requested a certain teacher, and if they did, they were not promised anything. There is a great difference between being an advocate for your child and being controlling. Parents used to be tolerant of all the new children and would never demand that some children be separated from friends because it might influence their child in a bad way. This was something that they trusted the teacher and their child to handle. Life is going to present us with many different people, it’s best to learn how to handle it early. Believe me, we, as teachers, were smart enough to separate those who needed it ourselves!!

The words, “My child would never do a thing like that” were rarely heard. Parents taught their children composure and self respect along with respect and courtesy to their peers and teachers. Teachers emphasized three things from kindergarten through high school; self control, integrity and humility, and they expected parents to do the same. Kids won’t remember everything you say, but they will remember what you taught them and how you made them feel!

The word if is a conjunction, a part of the English language which joins together or connects, and it is defined as in the event that or allowing that. My thoughts as we enter a new school year turn to the parents more than the students. If a teacher can say, “Oh, no, she/he is just like her/his mother” or “I can surely see his/her Daddy’s habits written all over him/her”, and not mean these things in a positive way, there is a problem which might reflect on those parents. If a child doesn’t have the integrity to fight their own battles, there might be a problem. If your family doesn’t teach humility, watch out! If you feel entitled to better treatment than your neighbor, what would Jesus think of that? If you feel that practice isn’t necessary to play the game, what does that say about sportsmanship?

We certainly live in the era of entitlement, but what does that teach our kids about life? I love the poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled IF. It is as true today for young men and women as it was when it was written, and applies to all. These words pretty much say it all.

If you can keep your head when all those about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowances for that doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or being hated don’t give way to hating, Yet don’t look too good or talk too wise. If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop to pick them up with worn out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings, And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your term long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them, “Hold On!” If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it And- which is more – you’ll be a man, my son! If by Rudyard Kipling