Running head: ASSIGNMENT 5.

3 PORTFOLIO

Assignment 5.3 Portfolio

Stephanie Wagerer
Fresno Pacific University

ASSIGNMENT 5.3 PORTFOLIO

In todays day and age, the world is a scary place that makes it difficult to traverse. Over
the last 34 years I have seen the world change and grow, but not always in the right direction. As
a child, I attended bible club and learned bible verses and music that, to this day, has helped me
out during troubled times. After my divorce, I moved back to Fresno to start over again, hoping
that I would be able to figure out my life. I was a single mom with two kids living with my
parents at first and then with a room-mate who has been here now for over four years. During the
first year of living in the apartment that I am in now, I fell into a deep depression. One that I used
to connect with people online, people whose influence over me was not moral or Godly. After
a well timed intervention by my sister, I was able to break free from those influences and return
to a place where God was once again the center of my focus. That was the moment that I knew I
needed to go back to school, and the school I wanted to go to was Fresno Pacific University.
Since that time, I have been covered in prayer and motivated to learn and study more about God.
I took a Bible class last semester that helped me dive deeper into Gods word and I still use the
book as a jumping point for getting into the Bible.
The weekly devotions and bible classes have been instrumental in helping me continue to
develop a moral compass that is not focused on the lessons that the world is trying to teach.
Developing a moral compass in this day and age is a difficult task. The world wants me to
believe that its way is moral and I am wrong, immoral, or evil if I do not follow the worlds
model of thinking. I have seen so many of my Christian friends, even my cousins, fall into that
worldly trap. They are Christians through and through, but they follow a worldly model in order
to pass under the radar of the world. It is difficult to live in a world where I feel as though I have
to hide your faith or religion in order to be accepted.

ASSIGNMENT 5.3 PORTFOLIO

Despite the challenges that we face as Christians, the question still remains, how do I use
the bible classes and devotions to develop a moral compass for myself and my students? The first
thing is that they strengthen my faith. The bible class that I took had us read three books and one
of them was called Let the Children Come by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore (2003). In this book,
the author wants us to look at children and child development from a Christian perspective, but
also to see God the way children do. This has helped me as a teacher to understand how children
grow and how to present them with a well rounded curriculum that includes religious
education.The goal of her book is to see children from a developmentally appropriate standpoint
as well as a moral one. It addresses the question How do we teach children to be moralistic in
todays world?
Hatred is something that is learned through exposure, children who act out and treat
others poorly have had that behavior modeled for them early on. Often parents and teachers
repeat the lessons they were taught as children, lessons based on fear and hatred that continue a
cycle of intolerance. Many people even use religion as a means to justify hatred and I have heard
children as young as three spouting intolerant language that reflects racism, religionism, and
sexism. Miller Mc-Lemore (2003) states that, Children have far less control over their actions
than adults, and blame often lies rightfully on the parents doorstep. But they still have some
control. Children can act perversely of their own human and God-given volition As a teacher
and an adult that spends a significant portion of time with impressionable children, I am mindful
of how my moral compass can influence the children that I work with.
Mc-Lemore also discusses how humans will ultimately fail because they are not perfect.
Children will go astray, parents will at some point harm children, and teachers will have bad days
but the book also reminds the reader that there is redemption in forgiveness. Parents and teachers

ASSIGNMENT 5.3 PORTFOLIO

can admit their wrongs and work towards positive solutions to avoid those problem areas again.
The lessons that I have learned through the devotionals and bible classes have helped me realize
that I am not a perfect person or a perfect teacher but I can utilize the materials and lessons to
demonstrate compassion, understanding, and fairness when I am teaching.
Like Mc-Lemore, I believe that there are times when I will want to do what the world
says. I will want to give in to frailty or temptation because I am a human being. However, the
resources I have gathered through 18 months of schooling in a religious facility have given me
the tools necessary for bolstering my faith, pointing my moral compass in the right direction, and
the ability to right a wrong and help my students do the same. I teach my children about love,
about repentance and forgiveness. I teach them about sin, and how we work to combat it by
admitting when we are wrong and working towards finding a better way of doing things. The
classes and the devotionals have served their purpose in helping me strengthen what was already
there; a heart for God and a heart to serve his children as a teacher and a parent.

Reference
Miller-McLemore, B. J. (2003). Let the children come: Reimagining childhood from a Christian
perspective. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.