When I was a teacher, I had a student who never brought a pencil to class. Not ever.

It felt like a calculated attack on my authority and demeaned my position as Podium Queen.

Unpreparedness is rude, yes it is, so I punished him with detention.

Then one day at a teaching workshop, an old woman with a guitar centered the stage.

I rolled my eyes as she strummed and sang songs about how to be a better teacher.

But then, God Himself must’ve possessed her body, because all at once she put her instrument aside and asked the audience if any of us had ever punished a student for not bringing a pencil to class…

Who, me???

She followed that question by asking if we had ever gone to a grocery store where we knew we’d need to write a check or sign a purchase order, and asked to borrow the cashier’s pen….and did the cashier scold us for being unprepared?

I swallowed hard, completely convicted.

Her monologue cut a chunk of ice out of my heart and replaced it with compassion and common sense.

Forever after, I kept a jar of pencils on my desk—the good kind.

And Guitar Woman taught me not only to remember my pen wherever I go, but to take extra.

 

Blessed are the merciful, for they’ll receive mercy.

~ Jesus