Vital Teaching

August 23, 2012

I’m teaching three classes this Fall at DBU: two Counseling Theories and Techniques classes and one Psychology of Adolescence class.  It’s been a tiring first week of getting back in the swing of working two jobs, preparing for classes, and getting up early in the mornings.  In fact, yesterday I took a four hour nap.  Wow, did I need it! (I wasn’t feeling the best but I think mostly I was just over-tired). But I LOVE teaching as much as I do counseling.  I love the interaction with the students and teaching helps keep my counseling skills honed.

In my Counseling Theories class this afternoon, we were discussing issues that beginning counselors face.  One of those issues was “staying vital as a person and as a professional.”  Professional burnout is a real concern especially for counselors because of the nature of the business.  All day long we hear people’s problems and the awful ways that we humans hurt ourselves and others.  So, “staying vital as a person and as a professional” is incredibly important in preventing burnout.  There during class, I thought to myself, “What do I do to fulfill this?”  I didn’t have an answer.  Certainly, my friends and family keep me boosted up but is that the answer?

As I was driving home, I felt so jazzed about teaching again.  I felt energetic!  I haven’t taught since last Fall and I’ve really missed it.  I called Lettia and said, “Have I told you lately how much I LOVE teaching?”  It’s not the first time I’ve asked that of her.  J

As I reflect on all this tonight, and as I wonder just what it is I am going to write about this week, I get the “Aha!” moment.  For most of 2008, my last year of graduate school, every time I walked on campus I had the thought, “I need to teach here.”  It was a bizarre thought.  What did I know about teaching college?  But, more and more I liked the idea and shortly after I graduated I started teaching at DBU.  God opened that door for me because it was far too easy for me.  Getting a teaching job at DBU is not easy.  I taught an adult education class for a couple of semesters and then I was approached (after I expressed interest) to teach a general psychology class.  Teaching my first psych class was nerve wracking.  I was so nervous I was sweaty from head to toe.  I am convinced my students went away that first day to tell their friends of Prof. Sweaty-pits.  But I got through it…and I got better.  Now, I am no longer nervous.  I am incredibly energized.

So, tonight, I see that God once again put all the pieces together with a foresight that is mind-boggling.  He prompted me to teach, opened the right doors of opportunity for me, gave me the fortitude to continue past my nervousness, and ultimately provided me with an outlet that helps me “stay vital as a person and as a professional.”

My God is so big,
So strong and so mighty,
There’s nothing my God cannot do.  (clap, clap)