Daily Thought for Thursday, October 13th

October 13, 2011

The Spiritual Principle of

Teaching & Learning

Today’s Thought:

“He who graduates today, and stops learning tomorrow, is uneducated the day after.”  – Newton D. Baker

Today’s Quote:

“To teach is to learn twice.”  – Joseph Joubert

Today’s Question:

Have you considered the wisdom in the notion that you should; “Learn from the mistakes of others for you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself?” – Anonymous

Today’s Bible Verses:            Proverbs  22:6, 2 Timothy 2:15  & Matthew 11:28-30

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Today’s Spiritual Thought:

“If you plan for a year, plant a seed.  If for ten years, plant a tree.  If for a hundred years, teach the people.  When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest.  When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests."  –  Kuan Chung

A person who believes they have nothing left to learn in life: is a person who does not realize how much they do not know.  Regardless of how educated we might be there is always something that we do not know; or something we can learn more about.  John Dewey said. “Education means capacity for further education.”  As long as we live we can learn.  Which by the way debunks the theory that says, “You can’t teach an old dog – new tricks.”  - Unknown   If the old dog (figuratively speaking) is willing there is something out there he or she can learn.   Of course the truth is age has nothing to do with one’s ability to tech or need to learn. 

And this is true spiritually speaking as well.  It doesn’t matter how often we read God’s word or how much we meditate and pray – there is always more that we can learn about who God is and what He wants for us and from us.

And often those around us do more to teach us than our pastors or Sunday school teachers ever do. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I pay the schoolmaster, but tis the schoolboys that educate my son.”

While teachers, both academic and spiritual, are important to us: we tend to be a society that emulates the actions of our peers and copies the behaviors of those we revere or look up too.

So, in line with this way of thinking; whom should we be emulating? Jesus, of course!  But as we go about our daily lives we need to keep in mind that for many we may be the only glimpse of Jesus they ever see.  Sometimes our witness is more about our actions and less about our words. 

We are all teachers of God’s word and His ways to others, whether they are new Christians, older Christians or non-Christians.  So we need to teach by example and all the while, realize we need to be constantly learning too.

The spiritual principle of ‘Teaching and Learning’ is really rather simple.  We need to always be learning and remember that in all we say and do we may be teaching others too.

Today’s Prayer:

Father, may I constantly be learning: and may I be a good teacher too: one that will please you and be beneficially helpful to others.