I find that if I don’t monitor the perspectives I’m bringing into my daily work in the classroom, I tend toward the defaults that are not very encouraging.

• Instead of seeing my students as image-bearers of God who are fearfully and wonderfully made, I see them as problems to be solved, papers to be graded, and behaviors to be managed.
• Instead of seeing my work as a calling I’m privileged to live out, I see it as a job, a paycheck, and an always-growing to-do list.
• Instead of seeing difficulties with students, parents, or colleagues as opportunities to grow in my apprenticeship with Jesus, I see them as personal affronts, demoralizing scenarios, or indications that I’m not enough.

This shift to our default perspective, I argue, is what we are always going to experience if we do not practice embracing the perspective of Jesus. 

So, how do we practice embracing the perspective of Jesus from Whom we so often stray, yet Who nonetheless patiently and warmly calls us back to Him and His perspective?

First, we’ve got to quit the shame game. Does Jesus grow bitter at me when my heart shifts yet again into bitterness toward my job or its difficulties? No. And, to prove this to myself, I need to look no further than how He patiently taught His disciples in the Gospels. Perhaps nowhere is Jesus’ patience with His slow-learning disciples more apparent than in His interactions with Peter right before His arrest. Jesus tells Peter that he is going to deny Jesus. Though he assures Jesus this won’t happen, within hours he is proven wrong.

And what does Jesus do? At the end of John’s Gospel, we see the inverse image of Peter’s denial—Jesus inviting Peter, three times, to answer whether or not Peter loves Him.

In the same way, Jesus responds to my slips into the default worldly perspectives I often struggle with as an educator. 

On hard days in the classroom, my heart may say, “My job is a burden, it is onerous, it is too much for me.” 

And Jesus is there inviting me, “Dave, may I give you rest from those burdens? May I shoulder them with you? May I be that power or wisdom that you currently lack?”

Therefore, in order to gain Jesus’ perspective of my work as a teacher, I must first take on His perspective about myself: though I am slow to learn, I am exactly who He has chosen to teach my classes.

Second, I must soak my heart and mind in God’s words, deeds, and actions. While all Scripture is God-breathed and useful, I again find the Gospels especially useful for bringing me back to my center in Him.

For example, when I see Jesus’ frustration with His listeners’ lack of understanding, I can gain the perspective that teaching truly is hard work that always depends on both the teacher and the learner. Though I am nowhere near the teacher He was and is, I’m following a Master who knew what it was like to be frustrated, and who still had to think through how best to reach His pupils. Even Jesus, in the fully human part of His being, had to plan lessons, observe their effects, and hone His craft over time.

Likewise, when I see Jesus using creative analogies to make abstract ideas concrete such as the plank and the speck in Matthew 7 or the lilies and the birds in chapter 6, I can gain the perspective that teaching is a creative act. Therefore, I can delight with Him in the puzzle of picking just the right analogy or example to illustrate a complex concept.

And, throughout the Gospels, when I see Jesus returning again and again to those “desolate places” where He sought God the Father for His earthly needs, I can gain the perspective that I was never meant to do the hard work of teaching alone. If Jesus, God incarnate, sought His Father throughout His ministry, then surely I need to as well. And though we have little record of the things Jesus sought His Father for during His times in solitude with Him, we can make some solid inferences from how Jesus taught His disciples to pray: God—You are great! May Your Kingdom come into my classroom today. May Your will be done here. Give me what I need for the lessons I will plan today, the feedback I will give, and the interactions I will navigate. Help me forgive my students; thank You for Your grace for me for the times I fail. 

This daily practice of setting aside my shame and steeping my mind and heart in the healing waters of Jesus’ life and ministry in the Gospels helps me find entryways back into His perspective, where I see my work as a teacher in the same way Jesus sees it. I hope it helps you, too.

Dave Stuart Jr. is a husband and dad who teaches high school students in a small town. He writes about teaching students toward long-term flourishing at DaveStuartJr.com.