Teaching is a challenging job.

It wasn’t easy in the East when driven students expected me to be the expert who knew everything off the top of my head – and to explain everything to them in terms they could memorize. And it isn’t easy in the West when skeptical students take delight in asking complicated questions just to be obnoxious – or sleep, talk, and play on their phones through class, never realizing what an incredible opportunity they are wasting.

Educators I have known and worked with have faced numerous other difficulties in different environments with students of various ages. From endless workloads to extremely deficient resources to administrators who were not supportive, those men and women demonstrated determination, intelligence, and compassion in the face of difficulty – often all at the same time.

And then there’s the pay…. Suffice it to say, those who hold most teaching jobs aren’t in it for the money. They have to have a particular passion deep inside if they are going to stick with it and teach well.

I recognize that many of my educational colleagues do not share my spiritual beliefs, but I know that I have a choice. I can either choose to try and climb those mountains, conjure those answers, and face those giants on my own. Or I can ask the One I follow, the greatest teacher of all, to empower me.

In the past, I’ve gone down the former path. And some days I’m still tempted to walk that way again. But it has only led to frustration, failure, or burnout. Yet, I know I’m on the better path when I choose the latter and consciously ground my identity as an educator in who He says I am.

(Though I appreciate the love students show me, I can’t depend on that either; students are only with me for a little while, and it’s interesting how their “love” for an instructor is often tied to their course grade.)

When I remember how much He loves me, it gives me an energy and a confidence to teach well. An energy and confidence I could never possess on my own.

Teaching is a challenging job. But I can do it.

Because I’m loved.