The Highest and Holiest Purpose
By C.S. Bezas

Oftentimes in the classroom we might struggle to maintain our footing within our duties. The opposition can be tremendous to what we are about. Whether it is the pull from our own challenges outside of the classroom or whether it's the unthinking, sudden tugs from our students, teaching can sometimes nearly topple us. Especially when a teacher is an early morning seminary teacher, things can appear particularly taut in the middle of the night.

Some early morning seminary instructors arise at 3:30 a.m. every morning of the week to get ready, drive to the seminary classroom, and set up their materials before the students arrive. This effort doesn't include the time spent away from family for the lesson prep the night before!

Even so, each day when those students arrive, it is imperative that we as teachers drop our own personal struggles so that we face our students clear-headed. No matter that the spouse may have just lost his job. No matter that the seminary teacher's own child may currently have rejected the gospel in a myriad of ways. No matter that the health of an aging parent appears directed towards death. A seminary teacher's most important job while in front of his students is to focus his thoughts on the needs of the students and to allow the Lord to carry the teacher's burden during that classroom time. It becomes a sacrifice most sacred to the One who cares.

What particularly can be difficult during all this is when the students appear to reject the offerings the teacher extends to them. From the variety of letters and email I periodically receive, it is quite something to hear of the love you have for your students, in spite of the periodic challenge of working with them. Some students struggle so deeply to grasp the bigger picture.

For example, one teacher writes:

I have one young man who will do anything to win, and I mean anything. He cheats incessantly! I stopped [using] competition. The first thing I tried was getting everyone to help everyone find their scripture mastery. He slammed down his book and wouldn't participate, because we "all" were going to be winners.

The next time we did a SM game, I had divided my students into teams and there was just going to be a small treat for all who finished (this was to be a practice for a test later in the week for missionary week). About one minute into the activity, one of the groups told me he and his team were cheating (my class president was on the team). I took his books and stuff away, did everything but a pat-down to him, and at the end of class he proudly announced that he was hiding his cards and that I hadn't found them.

I team-teach with another sister and [when] he was losing on Thursday he slammed his stuff to the desk and said the game was stupid. Unfortunately he is much of a leader and very popular among the other youth. Can you see where this is going?

My heart goes out to this teacher. Scripture mastery games are commonly used tools within the seminary classroom. Oftentimes they are timed games to help stimulate interest. Most students seem to relish "chasing" against themselves or even against other teams in an effort to better their speed in finding important scriptures.

But within nearly every classroom there seems to be a few students who struggle with competition in one form or another. Typically, I myself avoid competitive games, just like the seminary teacher above. But just as she might still need to use team games for certain purposes, I will, too. So what does one do when a student or two struggles within that paradigm?

Of course, the answers to that could be many. But it behooves us to remember why we are in the classroom in the first place.

The Highest and Holiest Purpose

It is oft repeated within the Church that there is no greater call than that of a teacher. In fact, isn't that even what parents are — teachers of the most potent kind? We are to be mentors, teachers in fact, for our own children. Teaching is as integral to the kingdom on earth as a heart is to a functioning body. Remove teaching and what do you have left?

Thus, to those working in the seminary classroom, remembering the essential nature of teaching moments can be fuel enough to push us past the periodic potholes and insistent speed impediments that we face (either before we arrive at the actual classroom or once we're there). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated:

To teach effectively and to feel you are succeeding is demanding work indeed. But it is worth it. We can receive “no greater call.” … For each of us to “come unto Christ,” to keep His commandments and follow His example back to the Father, is surely the highest and holiest purpose of human existence. To help others do that as well — to teach, persuade, and prayerfully lead them to walk that path of redemption also — surely that must be the second most significant task in our lives. Perhaps this is why President David O. McKay once said, “No greater responsibility can rest upon any man [or woman], than to be a teacher of God's children” (Ensign, May 1998, 25).

When we remember our purpose, this can fuel us toward another day that might be brighter and feel more rewarding. And we are not alone. We do not do this alone (or at least, we shouldn't). In 3 Nephi 8:24 we read: "Hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up — that which ye have seen me do."

The more we focus on holding up Christ as the Light, rather than ourselves, the more fitted we become for this high and holy purpose. The more we read our scriptures, the more strength we will have to face another day in the classroom, because we will have been taught what Christ did and does.

Any gospel teacher will tell you that there are more than just bleak days in the classroom. In fact, there are many sparkling days in a year of seminary moments. These are the many delightful days indeed wherein we teach God's children and they seem to grasp the importance of the moment. That moment when the "light" goes on in a student's eyes defines the true meaning of a miracle.

How could one distill that down to normal words? I think it would be difficult to do so. The moment when a student lingers behind after class with a simple "thank you" speaks volumes to what he or she might want to say, but is at a loss to express. These moments are irreplaceable. They help elevate the otherwise more challenging ones to a more even terrain.

Our work as teachers and leaders of youth is to join hands with the Lord himself as we strive to lead His children home. Much as Lehi motioned for his family to join him at the Tree of Life, so too do we extend a hand to our students so that they may partake of gospel fruit. But we need to remind ourselves that as it was anciently, so too is it today. Not all were willing to heed the apostle Paul. A portion of Lehi's sons rejected his words. Even some who knew Christ rejected Him whilst He was among them!

To Consistently Hold Forth the Light of this World

Our job is not to henpeck or criticize the numbers of those who seem not to listen or respond to us. We are to keep serving and loving as the seminary teacher mentioned above did. Our job is to consistently hold forth the Light of this World and invite all to receive it. Being called as a teacher, missionary, or evangelist in some fashion does not guarantee absolute success; but turning it all over to the Lord will do more to ensure success than any other thing.

As we remind ourselves that as teachers we function in the highest and holiest of purposes, perhaps it will help us get through the periodic student disappointments, the less-sleep-than-we'd-prefer days, and the overall challenging moments we sometimes face inside (or outside) the classroom. Truly, this calling of "teacher" is a high and holy one with mighty purpose. May the Lord bless us to serve well, in spite of the insistent speed bumps and periodic potholes we stumble over and through.