The Teacher

Sometimes you must decrease as someone else increases.  That is, your influence or importance in their life goes into the background while the person you influenced grows and moves on.  I think of the teacher, parent, sponsor, guide.  A second grade teacher, a parent of a small child, a sponsor of someone just getting sober, a guide to the lost, all have an important and influential place in the life of whoever they are mentoring or guiding.  The second grade teacher is central to this small child.  The teacher models, challenges and encourages the student one on one.  Then the student moves on, grows up, while the second grade teacher goes into the background or compartment of the grown adult’s past.  The teacher may never know of the importance of anything they did for that student.  They don’t stay in contact.  But the adult is living a better life because of the second grade teacher.  It is the same for a parent, sponsor, guide, and even a friend.  So I try to do and be my best for someone with whom I have a relationship or encounter in the present.  We may move on, and my importance will decrease while they might increase as living out their potential.  Hopefully, I had some good effect though I may never know it.  I was once a pastor somewhere.  I was central, important, influential.  Now I go back and I am “Father Who?”  So it goes.