Coming to Know God--Through Long Division

I have been reflecting lately on coming to know God--not just know things about Him intellectually, or read or hear things people believe about Him, but really coming to know Him and His nature.
For myself.

I am a person who comes to know the abstract, unseen, and unknown by connecting to the everyday experiences that are known.  It may seem strange to people that tabernacles help me understand and accept change, or that airplane rides help me face adversity with a better attitude, or that a GPS can help me move forward into the unknown, but for whatever reason...that works for me.

And so, in my quest to know (or perhaps just remember) someone I can't see, I have recently had some experiences-as well as remembered past experiences-that have helped me understand a little more.  Here is one:

MATH TESTS--Oh, the Horror!
I love my job.  One of my favorite things is finally being on the teacher side of school and getting and seeing everything from a different perspective.  It is funny how my favorite days of the year as a kid can now be some of my least favorites as a teacher (i.e. Any day with a large party.  You teachers know exactly what I mean).

Like most--hopefully even all--teachers, I am a teacher who really wants her students to be successful.   In fact, there are times I lie awake at night trying to think of the best way to help these kids figure out hard concepts like long division--how to teach them, have them practice them, and really get them to internalize them--so that they can not only pass the test at the end, but have the information become part of who they are.  

I never give a test--ever--without doing everything in my power to prepare each student to successfully take it.  With math, we break down every single principle into concepts-and then we take a day or two on each little piece.  We build, step by step, getting just a little bit harder each day.  Students take home homework and practice.  They get help from people who are more experienced.  They learn different strategies and try to figure out what works for them and makes the most sense.  When they still don't get it, I find additional help and they get one-on-one time or small group time with the aide or with me.  The night before the test, I send home a pre-test that looks very similar to the actual test.  We go over it.  We talk about it.  They practice.  I give them the answers to it.  They study it.  And then, after all of that, they are faced with the test.

They like to whine a lot about how "hard" things are and how they're not ready when, in truth, they are ready and they have been prepared, one step at a time.  Were I to give them the actual test in the beginning, most of them would fail.  However, by helping them figure it out little by little, by the end they can succeed.

Of course, if they choose not to do the work or learn along the way, if they don't do the homework, if they don't listen to the people who already know or find a strategy that works for them, I cannot make them do it--nor can I give them the answers on the test.  I simply have to sit back and watch them fail.  But up until that moment I will have done everything in my power to ensure that they will succeed.

And even then, even when some of them fail--whether or not it is their lack of effort that caused it--I work with them again, give them more time, more help, more instruction, and let them do a "re-test."

So, this last two weeks as I have taught, re-taught, practiced, reinforced, corrected and tested long division, I began to see me, us--little students here in our school called Life and Earth.  I am beginning to understand a bit more about the way I think God sees us and understand how He feels about us.  As much as we like to complain about how hard life is, there is nothing challenging that hasn't had some preparation preceding it.

Just like in school, life's challenges also come with help, a little at a time, life experiences building on previous experiences, allowing us to grow and stretch and struggle and start to "get it" before we're given more.  Sure, it's frustrating.  Yes, there are times we want to quit.  But there is Someone who understands the importance of what it is He's trying to teach us who will give as much help as we are willing to take.  I imagine Him looking at us and seeing us the same way I see my frustrated students.  When I see that glazed or panicked look in their eyes (especially after the first few problems) I simply say, "Don't panic.  Just keep watching.  Keep listening.  Pay attention to what I am saying.  It will make sense.  Don't whine.  Don't just tell me you don't get it.  Ask me questions.  Tell me which parts you need help with.  Keep trying.  Keep practicing.  It will come."

And it does.

If they will choose to keep trying and not shut down, if they will be patient, if they will do the simple steps over and over and over and over, it does start to make sense and become clear.  It does get easier.

But what about those kids in my class who do listen, who do keep working and still don't get it?  Or those who choose not to listen and don't get it?  Of course it makes sense that there was and is a plan set up for those of us who don't always get it right or get it as quickly as everyone else or have chosen not to be as diligent as we should.  There had to be some sort of way for us to try again, to take more time, to get additional help, to do better, to work harder, or to have a chance to prove ourselves again in the future.  And because God sent his Son, there is.

All I want for my students is for them to be successful.  I want them to learn what they need to learn and to have the confidence of knowing that they are able to do challenging and difficult things.  I worry and I work and I plan to make that happen with every single kid.  I don't want any of them to fail.

Believe it or not, my energy and thoughts don't actually go into dreaming up how to torture them with the next test.  I don't laugh to myself as I think about them doing hours of useless homework just because I can make them do it.  The only purpose is to help them learn so they will be ready and successful for what comes next.

I guess for a Father who is the perfect teacher, it wouldn't be any different that all His energy in creating this Earth and sending us to be tested on it is not to make us miserable or be unfair, but to help us learn and prepare us for what is coming next.

"For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  -Moses 1:39