Intelligence is not Enough



 
"Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character."
Via Pinterest

 

It hurts, to kick against the pricks.

 My previous college experiences have been, odd enough, like stealing candy from a baby. Professors ranged from difficult to pleasantly easy and the classes have been good dusters—prohibiting any proverbial dust from settling on my brain--but never mentally draining.

So, when this semester (full of elementary education courses) began I thought I was about to take another walk in the park, a gentle stroll with a few bumps here and there. Was I ever wrong.

We’re three weeks into the semester and already I am struggling to keep up with the homework, the papers, the schedule. I can’t even keep the classes straight: Emergent Literacy, Children’s Literature, and Formation of Education . . . which one am I taking a seat in now?

Needless to say, I’ve been taken aback, thrown off my easy (admittedly lazy) course. I feel so small and inept.

My options? Shrink away from the challenge or step up. This morning I happened upon Letter From Christ. Allison wrote on her recent experiences of teaching in China.

She wrote, “There were several days, particularly in the first week, that I felt overwhelmed. I reminded myself that God was able to make all grace abound to me, and that He was sufficient to meet all my needs. On my class schedule I would write things like “Needy and Dependent” to remind myself of this.”

Needy and Dependent. I am earning a degree so that I can teach on a mission field where the work will be hard. I’ll need to be dependent on Christ then and funny, but I need to be dependent on Him now.

Now when I am desperately looking for work. Now when my schedule is already overflowing. Now when money is tight. Now.

I know it’s small; there are so many more BIG problems out there. But this is my current struggle and I am learning to be needy and dependent—and find that His grace is sufficient.

Making coffee and conquering homework,

        Frannie