Never a Failure, Always a Lesson

The other night, I was teaching a lesson on family and completely missed the mark on my plan.  I am new to teaching, so this was bound to happen. But failure is never fun; really, it just sucks.

But failure is good to as it teaches me what to do better next time and reminds me of my dependence on God.  I planned a lesson that was too hard and didn't have a good way to teach the concept of family members.   But through the lesson, I learned that having good co-teachers and helpers is key as they can give ideas to help get back on track and step in when you are floundering.  I learned to keep my lessons as basic and simple as possible.  I learned flexibility is key (I knew this but relearned this.)  I learned to have lots of backup activities even if they aren't related to the lesson.   Through this lesson failure, I feel more equipped to deal with a lesson that isn't working and have knowledge of how to prevent it from happening again.

Also I was reminded of my dependence on Christ.  Even with the best ESL teaching skills (which I admittedly lack), I need God.  Specifically, I think of teaching the Gospel.  How do you communicate the Gospel in simple English to someone who knows no English?  I am still working on that one.  But God is good and can divinely inspire me or divinely enable the listener to understand.  I am glad He is greater than me.

So maybe the other night was a failure in teaching on my part.  But the lessons learned were invaluable.  So I will go forth and continue to teach and learn from my failure.