Blog Post 1: God as my refuge in life’s storms…

It happened again… I used ‘shouting’ as a classroom management strategy-much to my regret! After mulling over the matter, I prayed and asked God for forgiveness as I had lost my cool yet again. I prayed for patience, gentleness, self-control and that I would do right by the students I teach.

I recalled a book entitled “Why Are You Shouting at Us?” by Phil Beadle and John Murphy. I remembered the writer talked about the 5 Cs of compassionate teaching-Calm, Confidence, Clear, Compassion and Consistent! I realised that I forgot some of these qualities as I was eager to complete the syllabus and was too task oriented.

It was a lesson not learnt and I suffered a consequence for it. I prayed for God’s mercy on me and also prayed for His hand on the whole matter. I guess God wanted me to go round the mountain and relearnt the lesson. It was rather discouraging but I was determined to look to God and press on to change the way I manage behavior - Christ’s way; peaceful teaching.

I recalled that one colleague once shared an insight - there are too many evil forces around us but we have God on our side and we will overcome. I was fortified and further encouraged when I looked at scriptures.

Psalm 91:9-10 states ‘Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.’

Yes, as I made God my dwelling place, I will be assured that no evil shall befall me and no plague will come near my tent. Thanking God for his mercy and abundant grace.