HUMBLED
January 10, 2019
Prayer: Oh God, I am grateful that You forgive me and give me the grace to apologize in public when I need to. Thank You. Amen
Scripture: Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Prov. 28:13 NIV
This little girl criticized me and belittled the child who sang the solo. I yelled. I sent her back to her classroom. Who did she think she was? This was high stress season again. The concert was two weeks away, and I had small groups, dancers, and soloists to get ready in every spare moment. During the quiet minutes after chorus as I put the chairs away, I had that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Hadn’t I done the right thing? Didn’t she deserve it? The Spirit of God was heavy upon me. I knew that my actions and intentions might have been correct, but my manner and tone of voice were not.
Firmly believing that the circle of the sin needs to be the circle of confession, I knew that I would have to wait a week until the next chorus rehearsal to make this right. I learned that when you sin in view of seventy-five children, seventy-five children know it! The next week, I began chorus by saying that I was apologizing to Cindy, not because she didn’t deserve punishment, but because I had no right to lose control like I did. Would you believe that seventy-five pairs of hands applauded? They were agreeing with me about my sin! I was humbled, but relieved, because I knew that the Lord was also pleased with my confession.
When you sin in front of your students, can you find the humility to confess and repent? Outside of never sinning in the first place, admitting your downfall and revealing to your students that you know you aren’t perfect gives them insight into your soul. They can learn a valuable lesson, and see Christ in you as well.
Copyright Shirley Wilson. Email [email protected]
Jesus was the only person on earth that never had to apologize.
I think that transparency with ourselves, the Creator, and those that we may have inadvertently wronged is the most ‘Christlike’ thing that we can model for our students daily.