When Jasmine Turned Her Back

My Bible classes do quite a bit of memorizing. The eighth graders memorize a combination of hymns and  scripture but the juniors, with the exception of Lead Me To Some Soul Today, only do Biblical passages. I know not everyone sees the value in memorization but I think it has great merit. It also helps I'm very good at memorizing so it was a natural carry over into my teaching career, starting with my years instructing in the social sciences and continuing into my time in the Bible department. This past week, my Gospels classes comprised of 11th graders recited on paper this passage/prayer by Paul which is found in Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

As always, we rehearse a number of times before we put pen to recycled paper. The words are on the screen and I give often silly categories and if you fall into that group, you have to say the verse with me. For example, "Whoever has been to WHATABURGER in the last month" or "Whoever thinks they need a haircut" or you can make them up as you go as I do. Actually, the kids get a kick out of it and sometimes I let them choose the subsets for the group chant. (Side note- this may not come as a shock but my best memorizers are almost always from Asia.) On that particular day, I added a twist. In my third period class, I told Aliya that if she could recite the verse flawlessly, everyone would get two points or the equivalent of a correct word added to their grade. Aliya, new to WCS this fall, nailed it! In fifth period, I decided to make the same offer so I chose Jasmine, a wonderful young lady who was also in my Bible 8 class three years ago. She accepted the challenge but before she began her recitation, she did something that caught me off guard. Without announcing herself, Jasmine stood up and turned  her back to the screen. Then, she perfectly quoted the forty-four words flawlessly and sat back down, greatly appreciated by her classmates who saw their grades automatically go up on the merit of Jasmine's excellent memory. Not surprisingly, she made a 100% when it came time to write out the verse on paper.

In my next class, I made the same offer. Klyde, Andrew, and Kevin all missed by one word and it had to be perfect to count. (Two of the three missed the word all.) Finally, Lance nailed it and the two point addition was given to everyone. Here is what I found fascinating. Before we began, I related the story of Jasmine and her posture when saying Ephesians 3:20-21. Guess what all the boys did? All of them stood up and turned their back to the screen in identical fashion. In all the years we have followed this procedure for memory verses, no one had ever turned away like this young lady did. My take is that now we have a precedent.

I'm not sure why Jasmine turned her back when called upon and I have no plans to ask her. My guess is that she wanted there to be zero doubt that she was being honest and not sneaking a peek. Here's the thing, though. NO ONE who knows her would ever have had that notion cross their mind. She is as honest a student as I have ever had. Jasmine is a young woman of integrity. But I'm glad she did face away from me and the screen. Too often we try to straddle lines of what's right and wrong. Oh, we'll do the right thing but we like to flirt with the bad. In Ephesians 5:3, Paul denounces immorality and impurity and greed while adding there should not even be a hint of these evils in our lives. I think we like being edgy and drop a few hints here and there about stuff we deep down know is wrong. Not Jasmine. She steers her life away from even the hint of dishonesty. Last week, she said it loud and clear. And she didn't have to say a word.

Applicable quote of the day:
Children who see parents model care, love, respect, generosity, self-control, integrity, and faith in Christ are much more likely to exhibit those traits in their own lives. 
Mark J Musser

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com