But the greatest of these is love.

(I Corinthians 13:13)
The Greatest Gift____________________________
Marylyn has taught thirty years in Texas and Louisiana serving special needs primary students from
low income homes. Her greatest life work, after motherhood, has been to serve the most academically and
behaviorally challenged students at her school. She has always believed she is not working with the least of
them (Matthew 25:4) but actually the greatest of them because Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last
shall be first.” (Matthew 19:30) Marylyn has decided this is to be her last year teaching full time. She is going to re-tire and will be
getting new tires for a new and different journey. It is a very emotional time for her, stepping out of the financial security and profession
she has served in for years, but she knows it is time. Once a record setting high school sprint track star, she has been long distance
running now as a star educator for three decades. She has run with perseverance the race set before her and the finish line is now
weeks away.
Marylyn is a GREAT teacher for she has a servant’s heart and Jesus said that the greatest is the servant of all (Matt. 23:11).
She has been a heart valve in the body of Christ in public education because of the immense amount of unconditional love she has
given children who have often been rejected, abandoned, abused, and deemed as “failures” based upon the opinions of others and the
standards established by the state. Marylyn has helped serve students of all handicapping conditions including the blind, dyslexic,
learning disabled, intellectually disabled, autistic, emotionally disturbed, and Down’s syndrome.
Her co-teacher nicknamed her the “student whisperer” because Marylyn has a peace and gentle demeanor that seems to help
tame and get on task the most fearful, intellectually challenged, attention deficit, or out of control students. Most of the students she
serves have already experienced failure in other educational settings and motivating them to overcome their fear of failure is the
greatest challenge of her job. Marylyn is a master at assessing students’ instructional academic levels, planning motivating
interventions, and accelerating instruction. She looks beyond the narrow box provided by the school district to find solutions and
materials to meet students’ needs. She first looks into their hearts and meets their needs for acceptance and unconditional love.
One year a doctoral student at Texas A&M University came to interview Marylyn and her co-worker because statistically, at
the state level, the students in the special education department at Marylyn’s school were far outperforming similar students at other
schools. Bluebonnet Elementary, where she spent her last twenty-five years, was nationally recognized as a high performing Blue
Ribbon School. Marylyn was an integral part of the heart of this staff. She believed and allowed no child to be left behind far before the
federal government passed its own No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001.
Marylyn is not a flashy charismatic teacher who has won many accolades and awards, but she daily gives and receives from
her students the greatest of all gifts – unconditional sacrificial love. Perhaps the greatest gift Marylyn ever received in her career came
from LaDonna, one of the poorest least academically-abled students she ever served. LaDonna was a little girl with a large heart being
raised along with her older brother by a poor grandmother. LaDonna had a smile that would light up the world but a very limited
intellectual capacity. After two years of intense academic work in the second and third grade with Marylyn, LaDonna was still at the
primer level in reading. LaDonna loved fashion and had many Barbie dolls that she loved to play with at home. LaDonna would always
notice and compliment Marylyn on her clothing. She would come up to her teacher and touch her clothes saying with a big smile, “I
would love to have that dress! I would love to have those earrings! I would love to have that bracelet! You are so beautiful!”
These comments would always tug at Marylyn’s heart and she made sure that she stocked the student classroom store with
costume jewelry so LaDonna could work hard in class, earn tokens, and purchase some of her own fashion wear which helped to boost
her self- image and understanding of the value and necessity of work.
At Christmas, during the last year LaDonna was in Marylyn’s class, many of the children brought gifts to give their teacher.
LaDonna desperately wanted to give Marylyn a gift but she had nothing to give. LaDonna loved this teacher as no other and she knew
how much the teacher loved her. LaDonna, not knowing Marylyn was watching, took both of her tiny earrings out of her own ears and
neatly folded and taped them in a piece of lined notebook paper. She then wrote Marylyn’s name, misspelled, on the outside of the
homemade envelope. Tears flooded Marylyn’s eyes as she received the gift from LaDonna. It was the one gift given to her during her
thirty year career that she never forgot because it was given so sacrificially and with so much love. It was like the widow’s mite offering
of which Jesus spoke (Mark 12:42). In her entire career, in truth, it was the greatest gift of all.
Marylyn, like the heart in our bodies, works hard behind the scenes doing her thing and doesn’t want too many people to know
that she is retiring and she doesn’t want to have a big party. She wants to leave the profession as she came in and served, gently and
quietly, with no fanfare. She will not be able to silence, however, the angels that will be singing the day she leaves. Jesus will be
holding her hand walking her beyond the school door where she has served Him and His most precious children so faithfully for so
many years. He will gently and with great love whisper in her ear, “I love you. Well done my good and faithful servant. Let’s go my
beloved. I have a new and different journey for you. Here, take my hand in faith and let me lead you on as I once led you here.”
.

Prayer: Lord, let us never forget the greatest gift we can ever give students, parents, and staff is your unconditional love.
Reflection: What is the greatest gift you have ever received in your profession? What is the greatest gift you have ever given?
Getting Real: Ask the Lord what gift(s) He wants you to give others at the close of this school year. Listen to and obey Him.
CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: THE GREAT RACE (For info or prayer contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 29
Image “Electro On Heart Means Extreme Passion And Romance” by Stuart Miles at freedigital photos.net