Taking the Pride out of teaching

I love to teach!  I have been teaching at an alternative elementary program for the past six years and even through there were struggles I have loved having that opportunity.  I also have been blessed to teach in church.  From Relief Society to Gospel Doctrine and Primary to my current calling in Gospel Principles I have found that teaching the gospel is one of my favorite things to do.  When I don't have a calling in a teaching capacity I feel lost and sad that I may loose my ability to teach.  However, I also fear that pride has found its way into my heart at the skill I percieve in myself. 

Saturday night I was blessed to prepare a lesson on Talents.Gospel Principles: Developing our talents  I am always amazed at how the spirit can guide my mind to aspects of a lesson I have never thought of before.  For example in the lesson the parable of talents is discussed.  As I read through this parable in Mathew 25:14-30 I found myself plugging in actual talents for each of those given the three servants.  The parable came to life as I could see my brother in law being the servant with five talents and myself as the one with two talents.  Then there was the servant given one talent.  How sad it is that one can be given so much in even one talent but if it is not used they are cast out.  And not only does the one suffer but all around them who miss out on the blessings they could have offered. 

I was also drawn to a phrase in vs. 15, "to every man according to his several ability".  How wonderful it is to know that God knows each one of us and what our abilities are!  He gives us what he knows we can handle and trusts us to do our very best.  And then in vs. 21 and 23 we see one of the greatest teachings we can learn.  To both the servant with now ten talents and to the servant with six talents he says, "Well done, thou good and ^afaithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."  If only we could see ourselves as the Lord does.  No comparing ourselves to others, just loving ourselves as the Lord loves us. 

This parable touched me in a way it never has before.  Yet again as I taught this lesson Sunday and felt my way being guided not by my own abilities but by that of the spirit I wondered, am I prideful in my ability to teach?  For me that is the only negative aspect of teaching.  I guess I am afraid I love it so much, and I am not afraid to share that fact that I may be percieved as prideful.  Well, I went to Relief Society and recieved a real treat!

I am pretty sure that the teacher skipped a lesson as my husband had the lesson I read in preparation for the class.  You won't find me complaining as I learned a lesson that will help me to loose those thoughts of pride that I fear.  Church Leadership and Selfless Service.  I didn't think much of it for the first five or ten minutes but then we got to the real meat of the lesson.  It discusses the mandate of the Lord to, "Feed my sheep"  As the discussion commenced I realized if this was my main focus in my teaching I just might be o.k.  The question was asked, "how do we take pride out of the service we give in the church?"  It occured to me that if we love what we do and love the people we do it for the "I" gets taken out of the equation.   I felt a bit dumbfounded as I thought back to one of my main goals in every lesson I teach, to let every person within the sound of my voice leave knowing I love and appreciate them and that more importantly Heavenly Father loves and cares for them.  I know that I will have to continue to practice the lesson I learned but I felt this burden of doubt removed from my shoulders.  To steal and tweek a quote used by our teacher I want to, "become a window not a billboard" in any service that I give in any capacity.