I Am Oh, So Green!
By C.S. Bezas

As a new missionary I was big-eyed about everything. Even the food in the MTC felt like Christmas, because I had finally done it! I had become a missionary for the Lord. For years I had wanted to serve him full time and now I was here. All of it had a mist of wonder: the hard mattresses in the dorm rooms, the long days of language learning, the new rules and regulations.

Hmm. As the work increased, the mist of wonder soon faded. My early journal entries began to contain comments like, “Seventeen more months of this? How am I ever going to make it?” But then despair turned to a confidence that was hard to ignore. I now had been at the MTC for nearly two months and I had it all down. I no longer felt like a greenie — and boy, did it feel good!

I don’t think I was the only missionary who felt that way. We were all beginning to feel a little smug and overconfident. No wonder one of the MTC teachers shared what he did one Sunday evening. We were sitting in a training meeting in one of the many austere MTC classrooms and he suddenly said, “You sisters and elders may feel you know it all now. Just wait till you get out to the mission field. You’ll be back to being ‘green.’ You may not like the feeling, but it’s actually the best thing in the world. Remember this one thing: When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe… you rot!”

The expressions on our faces must have amused him, because he chuckled looking at us. He kindly went on to explain that being “green” is a good thing. When we’re “green” at something, we tend to be more humble. We don’t think we know it all. We are more likely to ask for guidance, thus improving our overall effect. We are more tolerable to be around. And as a result, the Spirit is far more likely to be with us.

On the other hand, when we begin to think we’ve learned all there is to know, when we think we need no more instruction because of our “seniority,” we stop growing and begin to “rot.” The teacher went on to explain the important of retaining in remembrance our need for the Lord at all times — even if we’ve become a “senior” companion, leading and making the final decisions for the companionship.

His insightful words have remained in my mind for years. “When you’re green, you grow; when you’re ripe, you rot!” seems to apply to much more than just missionaries. I liken this a bit to teachers who have been in the classroom teaching for many years. There oftentimes begins to sneak in (sometimes unbeknownst to us), a bit of an attitude that we no longer need to attend our teacher training meetings, coupled with thoughts like, “What on earth could another visit from a teaching supervisor show me that I don’t already know?” Ouch!

When Christ mentioned at the Last Supper that one would betray him, the humility of his disciples is amazing. They immediately “self-checked.” “Lord, is it I,” all but one asked. What an astonishing portrayal of open-hearted servants!

Yet this is the purer mentality that all powerful teachers strive for. We want to maintain this kind of humility. If a leader needs to instruct us as to our teaching techniques, so be it; we rejoice in the new knowledge. Who cares if we have more years of teaching experience. We want to remain open to anything we can learn that would make our time with our students more potent.

How frightening if we refuse to have this kind of yielding way about us. How frightening to shut ourselves out to possible inspiration from others, even if younger or less experienced. The Lord accomplished his works through a young man named Joseph Smith; he certainly has the power to work through others who are young or perhaps less tested and tried than we are. The Spirit will work through anyone, if living a pure life.

We want to receive all that the Spirit will send our direction! We, as powerhouse teachers, choose to stay green, not rot. We choose to be open to instruction, thus we attend all in-services possible and seek enlightenment from those called to instruct us

I think often how there is only one perfect Teacher. So by all means, I desire to stay “green” so that I can be taught by the Master himself and by those who serve him. I want the Spirit to tell me where and how I can improve; I want to stay open to all efforts to get me the instruction I need. The most horrible thing I can imagine is to arrive before the judgment seat of God and find out how much I missed simply because I stop attending in-service meetings, thus becoming “rotten” in my pride.

If we can’t run the risk of finding out that improvement still awaits in our teaching approaches (or in any other part of life, for that matter), where will we end up? Far better to learn new ways to reach my students — perhaps more effective ways that bear more fruit — than to insist on doing things my way or not at all.

This then, to me, epitomizes humility. This is the ideal of dependency on the Lord in all matters. Thus we say with great relish every day of our lives, as the Lord’s teachers and leaders of youth, “I am OH so green!”

Portions excerpted from C.S. Bezas’ new book, Powerful Tips for Powerful Teachers, available in LDS bookstores September 2006.