A Teachable Moment

In Psalms 25:5 it says “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation.” This brings me to a common expression known as “a teachable moment” which means a time at which a person is likely to learn something or responsively to being taught or made aware of something.

Teachable moments are perfect for teaching about life disappointments such as the horrors of war, death, poverty, social injustices, or when the answer we seek turns out to be NO instead of yes.

What is there to learn from teachable moments?  For one thing the Christian must be rooted in the word of God to know the value of a teachable moment. That moment is usually very brief, but it is worth a lifetime of instruction.

All teachable moments begins with a question. For Instance many people are asking questions perhaps like some of us. What’s happening to our children? Why is there so much hatred in the world? Why can’t I get ahead? What wrong with me? Why is there so much pain and suffering? Will there be other hurricanes like Katrina and Rita? Will there be other massive earthquakes? Is God trying to tell me something? These and others kinds of questions are being asked frequently because in the question there is a lesson to be learned.

God creates opportunities for spiritual learning for all of us. Sometimes it’s a personal experience; sometimes it’s the experience of someone we know; sometimes it’s a catastrophe event. In all facets of life there are teachable moments all around us.

God deliberately and intentionally through teachable moments teaches us biblical truths to help us reach a higher goal in life.

In such moments, we experience what teachers call ‘optimal intellectual arousal’. Like the perfect storm, circumstances come together and it is then we can learn best. In such moments; an individual is prime for discovering and developing new understanding. It is indeed these teachable moments in time which touched our lives through relationships, love, death, achievements, and disastrous events. These moments are teachable moments for in them we can learn life purpose. The teachable moment may not be comfortable. In fact, it is often extremely uncomfortable and confronting.

And yet, at other times, there seem to be peak moments when everything comes together, the perfect circumstances in which we learn dramatically and intensely. Such moments are often very memorable ones, our lives and many of us will always remember those as we look back over our lives. Then there are those moments that aren’t so memorable. The ones we wish never happened or would like to forget, those are the ones that challenge us never to repeat.

Through teachable moments we are able to pass something on to others because God just might have a plan for us. If we don’t learn from that experience, we just might have to experience it again and again until we get the message God is trying to teach us. Through our teachable moments we have the assurance that we are not alone for Jesus is with us, for in St. Matthew 28:20, Jesus says “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” To be filled by his Spirit is to be taught and empowered by Him. Christ’s life is then reproduced in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

©By: Dr. Christopher D. Handy, Ph.D.

 

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