Earlier this week one of my supervisors asked the members of the faculty who have taught for more than a year to write a letter to ourselves back when we first started teaching. I found it a refreshing exercise, and I encourage you to try a version of it that suits your situation. My letter follows:

Dear Mr. Chumley 2006,

              It’s 2019 here.  The Astro’s have actually won a world series, and they’re acting like they’re about to do it again!  You’ve married the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen.  She’s strong, faithful, and cares about the right things, so you would do well to relax and enjoy the time it takes to get here.  Your kids are the four most awesome people you’ve ever known, and you’re the most awesome person they’ve ever known.  (Granted, since I’m breaking time travel rule #1 by telling you about them, they are probably fading away, as I write this, through some trick of quantum mechanics.)  We’re neither muscular and physically appealing nor fabulously wealthy.  We do have joy and peace though. 

              I’m not going to lie to you; the world is darkening.  Everything seems to be falling apart, but we know better; everything is falling into place.  The Lord made it very clear in the Bible that it would be this way, and that our purpose would be to “appear as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14-16), “that they may see your good works, and glorify [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  We’re not fighting a losing battle.  We’re saving precious souls while there’s still time.  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). 

            You’re teaching at a reeeeeeeally big school now, and the kids do not talk like they’re from Texas.  They’re still kids, though.  Love them and teach them.  Pedagogical (yes, that word still sounds gross to us) trends are still coming and going.  The soul of a child is still the soul of a child; they have the same needs they have always and will always have.  The technology, the job market, and the vernacular all change.  So, how can we prepare our children for changes that we don’t even know about yet?  We do it by teaching them the timeless truth.  We teach them how to learn.  We teach them how to get it done, whatever it may be.  We teach them how to work with someone else (especially someone else who gets on their nerves).  We teach them to bring calm to high-pressure situations.  We teach them that customer service will always matter.  We teach them to accept discipline.  We teach them to discipline themselves, so someone else won’t have to.  We teach them to correct mistakes instead of denying them.  We teach them to listen more than they speak.  We teach them to forgive others.  We teach them to forgive themselves, to get up, and to move on.  We teach them to create value for their customers and employers.  We teach them contentment.  We teach them to think.  We teach them that there is truth, and that they need to find it, align and realign themselves to it, and stand on it.  We teach them wisdom.

The book of Proverbs is the obvious place to begin to study timeless wisdom (and for good reason), as it teaches us that the one God, the creator and sustainer of the universe and author of the laws by which it is governed, is the source of all wisdom.  But Isaiah 33:6 has become one of my favorite verses lately.  It reads: “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.”  The Word of God is not just the stability of Isaiah’s time, my time, or someone else’s time.  He is “the stability of your time,” (emphasis added) in essence, for all time.  My children, and their children, for as many generations as we are given, will be able to live just as I have and those before me have, on the Word of God.

Sincerely,

Doug Chumley esq.