Sometime ago there was a teacher who celebrated her eightieth birthday. It proved to be a marvelous occasion, highlighted by the presence of a great number of her former students. It seemed that she taught school in one of the worst sections of Baltimore. Before she came to that school to teach there had been repeated instances of juvenile crime and delinquency. When she began her work there came a change. The change in time became noticeable with so many of her students turning out to be good citizens, men and women of good character. Some became doctors, others lawyers, educators, ministers, honorable craftsmen, and skilled technicians. It was no accident, therefore, that on important anniversaries like her eightieth birthday she was remembered with gratitude and love from a great number of her students.
A newspaper got wind of this celebration and sent a reporter to interview her. He asked, among other things, what was her secret that made her teaching so rewarding? She said, “Oh, I don't know. When I look at the young teachers in our schools today, so well-equipped with training and learning, I realize that I was ill-prepared to teach. I had nothing to give but love.”
Don E. McKenzie, Northway Christian Church, Dallas, Texas
–James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 316.
