He will stay in with me at recess

One of my favorite classroom management strategies is called “Love and Logic.”  Essentially, you give students choices rather than forcing them to do something.  Here are some potential Love and Logic phrases that might come out of my mouth on a typical school day:

 “Well, you can either work on this assignment now, or you can work on it during our class party this afternoon.”

“That’s a bummer that you chose to do that.”

“How are we going to make a better choice next time?”

“I understand that you are feeling frustrated, but do you think that attitude is helping you right now?”

“I am sad you’re making that choice.”

“I’m not the one keeping you in from recess today, it is your own choices that keep you in.”

“I will give you 30 more seconds to be upset, and then you can either get back to working, or we can talk about this with your parents.”

You get the point, right?  As a teacher, I like to give my students choices.  I want them to “own” their own choices and actions.  I have found this method has so many benefits: it does not make the student feel inferior, it gives students the power to make their own choices, it helps students learn to live with the consequences of their actions, and it keeps me from being the “bad guy.”

It seems like God likes using Love and Logic too.  (Which makes sense, seeing as he is the greatest teacher ever.)  God likes to leave things open ended for me; sometimes people call it “free will.”  I like to call it “Jill-freaks-out-because-God-won’t-tell-her-exactly-what-to-do.”  Anyone who has lived with me is probably well aware that I am indecisive.  I hate making choices because I hate that I don’t know the outcome.  It’s come to the point where I can only buy one kind of cereal at a time or else I will spend a good 5 or more minutes trying to figure out which one to have for breakfast… and that is time I do not have to waste in the mornings. 

I’m heading into a time of my life that involves a lot of decision-making.  I’m graduating from college.  I have to decide what I actually want to do with my life.  Sure, I want to be a teacher, but where?  Should I settle for being a substitute or should I keep searching for a full-time position?  Should I stay here in Oregon, or should I go home to Washington?  Do I do the “unthinkable” and move back in with Mom and Dad?  Do I take time off to travel?  Do I go on a mission trip?  Do I find an apartment for myself or do I try to cut the bills by living with friends? 

I DON’T KNOW!  I don’t want to make any more decisions. 

I’m sure God looks down and smiles at my while I struggle through the painful process of decision-making in a very similar way that I watch my own students contemplate the benefits of doing their math work “now or later.”  For the moment, it seems as if my sweet students hate me because I have suddenly made them accountable for their own actions: they choose and they deal with what comes from that choice. 

I wouldn’t say that I “hate” God for making me choose.  In fact, it is a blessing that he gives me the choice.  I can choose anything and God will go with me.  There is not one choice I could make that God would throw in the towel and say “forget it, she chose the wrong path.”  If I have a student who chooses to goof off during math time and therefore “chooses” to stay in at recess, I stay with them.  I forgo lunch in the staff room to spend my lunch in the class, prodding them through their fraction worksheet. 

And so it is with God.  If I choose it, He will (metaphorically) stay in at recess with me.  So what’s really to worry about?  The best I can do is follow what I know is “right,” learn from the mistakes that I have made, and trust that God will go with me.