A lesson in obedience
/Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.
I was working in a new department at a college where I had taught for many years. The course material was not new to me, as I had taught it in other departments. I taught that particular material differently from the other instructors in my new department because we all had different backgrounds, focuses, and teaching methods.
Out of the blue, I received a very curt email from the coordinator telling me not to change any of the assignments or marking schemes. This was most upsetting because throughout my college teaching career I had been permitted, even encouraged, to teach in the manner that seemed to me to be the most useful and practical. I didn’t sleep much that night because I wasquite aware that this coordinator would decide which courses I taught in the future. I was praying to see the evidence of one Mind, which included my trying to be obedient, not headstrong. It was humbling to follow the predetermined course to the best of my ability. It was also educational, because it allowed me to re-evaluate some of my own teaching approaches and see places where improvements could be made.
This year I got another email questioning my curriculum. I was grateful that I had been led to closely follow the course as it had been set out, so I could assure the coordinator of that.
The final step to this healing came in a recent awards meeting when we were displaying the work of some of our best students. The coordinator saw that I was doing something that was different from the other instructors, and he stated, “I’m going to do that next year.” It may seem like a very small thing, but was a large comfort to me and carried with it a sense of healing.