The Master Teacher – August 15, 1999
As we stumble our way through a world full of shadows and confusion, we find ourselves wishing for firmer footing and clearer vision. So many of life’s challenges can seem as difficult to us as long division to a small child. Like a child, we wish we could sneak a glance in the teacher’s desk, where all the answers are written. In the classroom of life, answers don’t always come easily. Faced with dilemmas and challenges and trials, we cry out in exasperation, “What am I to do?” This is especially true for the most difficult family challenges—what mother hasn’t wished her children came with owners’ manuals.
Like students in a classroom, we have textbooks we call scriptures. But we also know that we can raise our hands and call for help from our Teacher. We can pray, and we know that God hears and answers our prayers. And as we listen for answers to our prayers, feelings and thoughts come to our hearts and minds and we sense that our prayers are answered.
But God, like the Master Teacher He is, knows us well enough to not give us all the answers at once. Learning long division is more than simply memorizing answers. Growth requires effort. We can stand motionless only so long, basking in God’s light. Sooner or later we must seek greater light—learn how to cope with more difficult problems. And line upon line, precept upon precept, we increase our light and knowledge.
A young mother wrestled with a difficult decision. Her youngest child was in kindergarten. The mother had the opportunity to finish her education and go back to work. And yet, somehow she was dissatisfied. At first she prayed for more guidance regarding what career she should choose. No answers came, and she became even more restless. The more frequently she prayed, another thought crept, unwanted and unbidden, into her mind.
She and her husband had decided years before that they would limit the size of their family. They had carefully planned their family finances around that decision. And yet, as she prayed, she couldn’t help feeling that her family was not complete. Against all logic, even against her will, she felt more and more that she needed to have another child. As she finally began to accept the thought of holding another infant in her arms, and prayed about it, she was filled with the most marvelous joy.
We don’t always receive the answers to our prayers we want to receive. Nor do answers always come clearly at first. God, the Master Teacher, teaches us the lessons we need to know—not always the lessons we want. But He will always teach us. On that promise we can rely absolutely.
Program #3652