Buzzwords are fashionable expressions often used in businesses. They are meant to impress and drive home new and improved theories believed to be the key to success within the organization. In the field of education, the new buzzword or phrase is Common Core Standards.
The Common Core Standards are a collection of ideas formed in an effort to prepare the next generation of K-12 students to be college and career ready no later than the end of high school. The standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach. They focus on what is most essential, but don’t describe all that can or should be taught. It is not a list of restrictions or limits. Although there are tons of resources: books, websites, and trainings on how to use the standards, I think I can speak on behalf of most educators when I say the most important tool in reaching students is establishing a common ground. If students believe that their teacher sincerely cares about them, and is not judging them for who they are, but simply providing them with tools to become the best that they can be, they are more likely to grab hold of and apply the tools.
God gives us a standard by which to measure love. No one will ever love us like He does, but he provides us with a guideline for what we should expect of an appropriate suitor, what they should know and be able to do, what is essential to a successful relationship. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” There are many relationship books, online dating sites and even married couples Sunday School classes and retreats, but we must first and foremost guard our hearts with the syllabus of God’s Word.
To those blessed with the awesome responsibility of being a wife they are instructed in 1 Peter 3:1 to “be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over not by badgering words but by the wife’s believer behavior” (words added for emphasis). Simply put, nagging is a no-no. It doesn’t work. Instead of judging and blaming, we need to be clear and honest about our expectations. It is God’s job to do the teaching through our obedience to Him. Yet too often, we register “students” that God has not assigned to us. We go to great lengths trying to “school” them when all the while God has a different lesson plan for us. The Word isn’t some boring lecture that keeps us from having fun, but valuable information that can keep our hearts from being broken.
So if you keep finding yourself back at the same old drawing board, having the same arguments or attracted to the same type of people/relationships– perhaps you should ask yourself early on, way before the wedding bells ring, “What do we really have in common?” If you’re not both exerting the same effort, or if one of you isn’t ready to graduate to the next level, it just might be time to say, “Class dismissed.”
Blessings,
Celeste <3
