When I arrived on the campus of the high school and pulled up to the building where the class is held, I was amazed to see that the building’s administrator had brought her 8 year old son to work with her! Not feeling too bad about having my daughter with me, I walked into the classroom where two of my high school students and one of my traditional college student had already arrived even though the class would not start for another eight minutes. Having had some concern about how my students would react, what happened next was amazing. My college aged student took it upon herself to make my daughter feel like she was a part of the class! For the next fifty minutes my daughter not only did not disturb the class, but actually (and quite surprisingly) entertained herself with a map of Kentucky and a single pen!
As the course came to an end, the student that had watched my daughter, helped her to sit at the table next to her, and provided her with the pen, had told me that she was amazed at how well my daughter was behaved. She told me that she had always wondered how some of her professors interacted with others outside of the classroom and was amazed at how I treated and talked to my daughter. One of my young high school students began to add to the conversation that she thought that my daughter was truly blessed to have a father that was as patient and caring as I was. She said she had saw us in the parking lot and had heard me answering in a calm and patient voice the numerous questions that she asked as we approached a building that she was totally unfamiliar with.
The young high school student asked me a question I hadn’t expected and do not think I have ever been asked before. She wanted to know how it was that I had learned to be a patient, nurturing, and caring parent and if I were going to “tutor” anyone to be a parent, what was the first thing I would want that adult to do. It’s a strange question, but I shared the first thing that came to mind – I told her that I would point them to Jesus. I began to tell her and the young college-aged lady that had accompanied me out to the parking lot that this morning was totally the work of God. I explained what had happened this morning, not having time to take Edith to the babysitter, and the prayer where I had turned the morning over to God.
I then shared the story of Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson; after the Battle of Antietam, he was asked by a young Confederate officer how he could bravely sit in the saddle of his horse with bullets and cannonballs flying all around. General Jackson turned to face the young officer as they walked among the dead Union and Confederate soldiers that lay scattered across the battlefield and told him that as a Christian, he has nothing to fear, for only God knows the exact moment of his death and until that time, there is nothing that any man can do to take his life from him. He had, as he told the young officer, nothing else to do on the battlefield than to do what he had been called to do with the security of knowing he would not die until it was his appointed time! It was his faith in the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that allowed him to be the military leader during the Mexican War and the Civil War. I explained that outside myself, I had to come to realize that in order to be the best dad for my daughter, I too, had to have that kind of faith in God.
Because of time restrictions and schedules that had to be kept, we had to cut the conversation at that point. The high school student told me that it was inspirational that there were people that had a real faith; the college student commented that she had never had a college professor that had a belief in God that resembled anything like what she had been taught in church. I don’t know what the outcome of the conversations will be, but it was a blessing to be able to discuss with others the importance and need of having a strong personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
