The Blessing by John Trent

Author:John Trent
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Published: 2011-04-26T10:00:00+00:00

TEN

The Fifth Element:

An Active Commitment

MOST CHILDREN HAVE at least one subject in school that they particularly dread. Whether it is history, English, or geography, that course represents the worst hour of the school day. For Gary, that subject was geometry. Yet it was a geometry class in high school that taught him the incredible power of an active commitment—the fifth element of the blessing.

“Mathematics was always the subject I dreaded the most. In grade school it was my poorest subject, and that continued to be true during my first two years of high school. In fact, when I had to repeat geometry my senior year, I was sure after only a month that I was going to flunk the course. My only solace was the fact that more than half the class was flunking with me. Our teacher would constantly remind us of this fact by arranging our chairs according to our current grade. Those of us who were failing lined the back wall.

“One Monday morning, when we dragged ourselves into the classroom, all that changed. Sitting behind the teacher’s desk was a substitute teacher—good news in itself. Then, when we found out that our regular teacher had been reassigned to a different district, we felt like the people in Paris during World War II who had just been liberated! But the fact remained that half of us were still failing the course. And I was still discouraged because I believed I was below average when it came to mathematics.

“Then the new teacher said something that literally changed my life. In fact, it motivated me so much that I ended up minoring in mathematics in college. While I didn’t realize it at the time, he actually blessed me and the other students in the class. He did this by providing us with a clear picture of an active commitment—the fifth element of the blessing.

“Standing before the class that morning, our new teacher told us, ‘If anyone fails this class, then I have failed.’ He made a commitment that morning to do whatever it took to see that we all passed the course. He pledged himself to see that we learned and enjoyed the subject to the best of our abilities. Whether that meant his staying after school to tutor us or even coming in for a special session on the weekend, he dedicated himself to see that each of us made it through the course. Nearly every Saturday morning he would help several of us with our homework, then play a little volleyball with us for fun.

“Imagine the turnaround that took place in that class. Where once we had dreaded geometry, now it became something we looked forward to. Even better was what happened the last day of school, when our teacher posted our grades. We all passed, and I received my first A in math!

“You should have seen it. We were all jumping around and hugging each other. All because one man committed himself to a struggling bunch of students.

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