Education

“Then [Jesus] said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ ... Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!’” (Mark 11:14, 21, NIV).

Here is an odd story about Jesus. Hungry, Jesus sees a fig tree with leaves because it was out of season. Finding it has no fruit, He curses the tree, and it dies. Why does Jesus do that? Doesn’t it seem unreasonable? Why does Mark tell this story?

The gospel accounts are not collections of random stories of things Jesus did. Each gospel book is a revelation of who Jesus is. So either Mark wants us to think Jesus is an unreasonable tree killer, or something deeper is happening here.

“But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19, KJV).

I find myself worrying about the future, like, “Will I get accepted into the college I want?” In my worries, this verse reminds me that “God supplies all my needs.” He knew our future even before we were born. He has a plan and purpose for everything.

In December 2019, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. I had been getting severe back pain since April of that year, but now things started to get real, and I was scared. The doctors ordered X-rays, and they looked dissatisfactory. Then they ordered an MRI to rule out brain tumors, since the X-rays and the curve numbers were unexplainable.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ... I will fear no evil; for You are with me; ... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Ps. 23:1, 4, 6, NKJV).

These verses mean a lot to me because I know God is always with me and looking out for me.

When one of our teachers resigned in August 2019, we all thought that the school was going to close. So we prayed and prayed, and then Mrs. Smith offered to come out of retirement to teach us. I feel God has really blessed me by having her as my teacher.

“In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1, ESV).

It was a rainy Monday morning. I stood in front of my seventh-grade class ready to teach Bible. My head cloudy, my heart in pieces from trials in my personal life, I struggled to hold back the tears.

“Good morning, class! Let’s pray! There will be no singing today for Bible class,” I said as quickly as I could. “We will go right into our lesson. It will be a review because you all know the creation story!” I allowed a student to pray because I knew the darkness I felt would cause me to cry.