Careers, Vocations, and "Puttin' in Yer Time"

Careers, Vocations, and "Puttin' in Yer Time"

       My great grandma (Mary Bearfield) was a one-room schoolhouse teacher in the 1890s.  My grandma (Winnifred Iverson) was an elementary teacher from the 1930s to the 1960s.  My grandpa (Norman Iverson) taught math, music and business and was superintendent of schools in the 1930s and 40s.  My mom (Linda Iverson) was a first grade teacher for three years in the 1970s and my dad (Robert Iverson) was a music teacher for thirty years, also starting in the 70s.  Growing up, there didn't seem to be many other career options besides teaching!  I was one of those children who played school with my dolls all lined up in front of me as I "taught."  Sure, I had other things I wanted to be when I grew up (a famous singer or violinist, a writer or  illustrator, or maybe even the voice for a Disney animated movie?).  My brother wanted to be a professional baseball player, so why couldn't I dream big?

       I didn't decide I wanted to become a teacher until ninth grade career day.  I followed around a kindergarten teacher and I just KNEW that was what I wanted to do.  I loved the energy and excitement of five year olds!  Years later, I fell in love with 7 year olds and got hooked on second grade.  I felt at home in the classroom.  As I grew older and continued to feel the tug toward teaching, I came to better understand what it meant to have a vocation.... something you had been called to do.  My college friend, Pauline, is now a pastor in North Dakota, and back in college, she would often talk about the need to believe that your job is your vocation, your ministry, your service to the Lord.  Now that I have been teaching for thirteen years, I better understand this concept.  I am a teacher.  But, more than that, I love my students.  I am serving the Lord by serving my students.  This is my ministry.  Teaching takes all of me.  Last August, I wrote a blog called "If..." about all the things I would enjoy doing if my whole life were not consumed by being a teacher:  

(http://www.journalingjennifer.blogspot.com/2012/08/if.html).

       Recently, my husband asked me if I could do my education and college all over again, would I still become a teacher?  Without a moment of hesitation, I answered YES!  What followed was a very interesting conversation about what we could see ourselves doing if we couldn't have our current careers.  I would probably still work with young kids (holding babies in the infant room at Cobber Kids Corner Daycare in Moorhead, Minnesota sounds great!.... or something with children's ministry at a church).  I could see doing more with my writing (a cubicle job of responding to letters at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colorado was intriguing to me after visiting there years ago).  I have my music background and could teach piano or violin lessons privately.  I think I would even enjoy doing beginning orchestra in a school or community setting.  I think I could make any of those jobs be a vocation.  But, then there are "Puttin' in Yer Time" jobs like being a cashier/duster at Hallmark or working with food all day or doing a task that takes little brainpower.  Uff-dah!  That's not for me!  I wonder if that kind of job could ever feel like a vocation.  I suppose it could....  

     There are days when teaching is really, really, REALLY hard.  There are politics and unhappy parents and negative co-workers and uncooperative kids and times my heart is simply not in it.  There are days when I can hardly wait for that minute hand to reach 3:10 so I can leave those walls and ceilings for a while.  But, there are more days that are rewarding and productive and good.  I get a high out of being organized.  Teaching requires organization.  I love feeling a connection with my students.  That happens every day.  I'm excited about the content I teach.  I learn new things every year.  God is at work in my classroom.  I invite Him in.  He stays and makes Himself at home.  God likes my vocation.  He has called me here.

      Sometimes when I think about my great-grandma, Mary Bearfield, teaching in a one-room school house in the 1890s, I think about how she would be proud of me.  She doesn't even know me, but I think she'd be proud of me.  I bet she had days where she was watchin' the minute hand too, but most of all, I hope she found her job to be rewarding and good.  I hope it was a vocation to her too.