Go ye into all the world.
Photo by Melody Margrave
Go Ye into All the World by Melody Margrave
Teach by example; therefore, others learn by your example.
“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
We’re not all evangelists, priest, ministers, preachers… but the verse still applies to everyone. I’ve always been a believer in teaching by example. That’s the public school educator coming out in me, but I think it applies here as well. Teach by example; therefore, others learn by your example. Show each other how to help by example; therefore, this will be a much better place in which to live.
“I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you…Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 15, 17)
These two verses have resonated with me throughout the whole COVID teaching experience more than ever before. They have popped into my mind at times to remind me what I should be doing; yet, in some ways, I have struggled with their meaning. I am a teacher, but I usually do not have the opportunity to share the Word of God except in the examples I try to set each day. Nevertheless, I feel motivated by the verses in my struggles to know what to do to help me and my students survive the changes of the year.
Three days a week, as I’ve driven to school in the early morning hours to an empty classroom to teach virtually, I have passed our district’s school buses heading out into the county. Depending on the day and the time I leave home they are either leaving the school’s drive or on the road to school, but one after another I pass 15-30 buses. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you will question why the buses are running – students are not coming to school. Those buses have a monumental task – they are delivering meals to our students at their homes providing a need. Every time this happens, I hear the beginning of the first verse in my head, “Go ye into all the world…” Shortly, my mind wanders to the second verse, “you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you…and you will be blessed if you do them.”
As an English teacher, I’m telling myself that to share this is to take those verses out of context. I’m not teaching the whole story. How can I rightly put them together and leave out some of the important message for each verse and then I ask myself, how could I not. This every week occurrence has brought comfort to me during this time and has helped me realize that just the smallest of effort can also comfort others. Those buses going into the county is just a small effort (that has taken a lot of planning) to help take care of my students. In the big scheme of things, they’re taking care of our own little part of the world.
So, three days a week as I see this site, I am rejuvenated to do what I can to make sure that my students are doing well. God put me here in this place and in this situation of teaching even though I’ve been here for years. Every time I question why I’m coming to school every day to an empty classroom, I picture those buses and hear those verses.
This year has been about so much more than teaching a subject in the classroom. It has been about making sure these students are well – both physically and mentally. Every Zoom class for most of the teachers – nationwide – began with “How are you doing today?” and mine ended with “Just remember, I’m only an email away.”
I think every teacher has struggled with not being able to see their students in person. How can I judge what is going on with them and where they need help if they are not in the classroom with me? It truly has been a struggle especially if they are unreachable. I’ve seen teachers call students, parents, or grandparents checking on their students. We’ve written notes and mailed them. Our administrators have gone out for home visits. We have smiled if a student stops by school to drop something off or pick something up. We’ve looked for joy in the little things. Yet, there have been situations that are hard to overcome. Students have succeeded; students have given up and teachers have thought about giving up. I, personally, have thought on more than one occasion that maybe I should have retired a year earlier. Then I see the buses.
Those buses are going out to take care of my students and I need to do the same. It’s that way in school and it’s that way in our neighborhoods. I’m sure that most of you have checked on a neighbor a little more often than before. Even keeping our distance, we need to care a little more, show kindness a little more, and listen a little more. Even with all the trials and tribulations of this virus and the other crazy events of the year, people out there have “gone into their neighborhoods and set the example.” I’m not a true optimist at heart, but I have seen it happen and it’s made me realize that those big yellow buses are setting the example for me.
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
Melody C. Margrave is married to Richard Margrave and lives in Virginia with their son, Zachary. She is a high school English teacher. An only child, she was lucky enough to marry into a family where she now has four sisters and two brothers – Brenda Hale being one of the sisters. She loves her Tennessee family who she has not been able to see during this pandemic, but is so happy the Brenda has started this ministry. She can’t wait to hear of the families that are blessed by Brenda’s relationship with God.
