Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
As I was skimming over what people published on LinkedIn, I read a post about teaching college students using PowerPoint, the software that creates single slides you show your audience on a whiteboard so they follow along with what you are saying.
Attending courses I well-remember this type of teaching, where I had to create my own as a college student. One of my memories is of taking time to create a PowerPoint presentation about student visas for international students. I spent a long time on my PowerPoint slides, doing the research needed and then writing out the information for what I would say while I showed my slides.
Then I went on to become a University Faculty Instructor for the University of Phoenix, in Sacramento, California. I found that the students liked my bringing in redacted case notes that were mine that I actually submitted into my client’s case files.
Of course, the names and all identifying information was blacked out, but the one comment that stands out in my mind from a student in that particular class was, “finally, something real that we can learn from”. It meant the world to me.
Now when I read LinkedIn PowerPoint training courses, and view them in training videos, I become very bored. It’s not the real thing; it’s not brining actual reality to a classroom unless you can present snippets of actual pictures to tell a classroom a story.
Teaching today can present such a boring curriculum, and students pay for this kind of teaching. Instructors can be lax in teaching and training and fall short of the teaching they are paid to do.
Another class I attended was about group counseling and the instructor divided the class up into two large groups and she was going to let us – the students – run the groups. She would only check in once in awhile. Is that teaching? Must have been a nice job where she didn’t have to do much.
As a natural teacher – I believe I am, and I love it so much – I feel I have a calling to not only do some counseling, but teaching, to convey things I have learned from the courses I have taken and share them with those wanting an education and coaching on how to counsel hospice patients, and support people who may feel lonely at the end stages of their lives.
It’s a very compassionate place to be, being present and remaining there, present for the person and appreciating their value while they lay in the end-stages of their lives.
I have often thought about what it must feel like to be in a hospice bed, knowing I was dying without Christ; and then while I know Christ. I marvel at the difference at what it feels like.
I felt afraid, not knowing Christ, but now I am content to know He is loving, tender and kind. I hope to live a long and happy life; yet when I die in this body I will know I am dying in the arms of a loving Savior, who knows my time will end on this earth.
I am not afraid to die; I am a Christian believer who has no fear, except the dread of knowing I won’t want to die with a long-term malady that keeps me bed-ridden. Like Moses, I want to be walking on my own and in good shape as an elder person and have God take me up into his loving arms as quickly as possible. I have prayed for this, and I’m sure many others have to.
All this comes to mind as I want to create a course of study about how to be a friend to someone who is dying; and be a Christian there for a person who may want to talk about Christ during their end of life.
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