Abstract
Within the broader TESOL community, recent years have seen an increase in dialogue between two groups – critical practitioners (CP) and Christian English teachers (CET) who seek to combine their calling to teach with their calling to be a witness. While some are skeptical about the compatibility of these two callings (Pennycook, 2009; Phillipson, 2009), others have laid out a vision for how one might be both a critical practitioner and a Christian English teacher (Wong & Canagarajah, 2009; Purgason, 2009) citing the character traits of respect and humility as being key to this endeavor (Snow, 2009; Purgason, 2009). Much of the discussion on humility has centered around its role in dialogue (Canagarajah, 2009); language learning
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This quote gives us a glimpse of humility which the dictionary defines as “freedom from pride or arrogance” (Merriam-Webster.com, 2018a) and “the absence of any feelings of being better than others” (Merriam- Webster.com, 2018b). Certainly, these definitions have much to say about an English teacher’s attitude toward the places and people where they teach and serve. The biblical depiction of humility, however, lends a slightly different nuance to the concept that adds richness and depth. In Scripture, humility is found not in comparison to other people, but rather in the recognition of our lowly position before God. Consider the following definitions, “Humility is an attitude of the heart that naturally recognizes that we are lower than God and owe our lives to Him” (Truth or tradition, n.d.). Humility is “an attitude of lowliness and obedience, grounded in the recognition of one’s status before God as his creatures” (Manser, 2009). Humility then is not so much a positioning of ourselves in comparison to others, but rather an inward posture of the heart that recognizes one’s position before …show more content…
The first is the connection between humility and one’s position in relationship to God. Christians are told to humble themselves “in the presence of the Lord” (James 4:10); “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Pet. 5:6); and to walk humbly with their God (Mic. 6:8). In addition, two of the passages emphasize “putting on” or “clothing” oneself with humility. This evokes a vivid picture. As a person chooses the clothing they put on each morning, CET also choose to view themselves with humility recognizing their position under God. Finally, one can’t help but notice the connection between humility and exaltation. This highlights the paradoxical nature of God’s economy. The pathway to exaltation or greatness is not to lift oneself up in pride, but rather to lower oneself to serve and walk in humility. Likewise, notice that it is never man who exalts himself, but rather
Throughout the span of the past few weeks I have traversed the globe, visiting several countries and regions, only to realize that although new methods develop, language as a way of expressing ones self has remained the most effective. Despite this fact, language still has its pitfalls. Neil Postman, in his essay “Defending Against the Indefensible,'; outlines seven concepts that can be used to aid a student in better understanding the language as a means of communication. He describes how modern teaching methods leave a student vulnerable to the “prejudices of their elders';, further stating that a good teacher must always be skeptical. He urges teachers of all subjects to break free from traditional teachings as well as “linguistical tyranny';
N. T. Wright’s The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential reminds us of the differences found within the importance of God’s time, space, and matter in comparison to our time, space and matter perspectives. In our limited human capacity we as human kind take our miscues from the human perspective when chasing after the material gains of this world as we put our prayerful meditations and relationships to God on the back burner of our lives while redirecting our energies toward the relationships we cultivate with our wealth. If we as Christian cultivate our relationship with God we will be recognize the wealth we seek can only be found in our relationship with Our Father and Our Savior Jesus Christ as He is the provider of our wealth. He sees clearly our needs providing for them daily. If we could see the realities of our time, spac...
C. S. Lewis stated the distinction memorably: “Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.” and went on to say “In other words, humility is fundamentally a form of self-forgetfulness as opposed to pride’s
Many have the misconception that humility is the “acceptable synonym” to self-degradation. This is far from the truth, and instead of benefiting those who retain this theory, it only hurts them. The devaluing of talents or God-given not only introduces self-deception, but also diminishes the awesomeness of God. Instead, Lewis implies in The Screwtape Letters that God’s view of humility is quite different when Screwtape tells his nephew, “You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness, but as a certain kind of opinion, namely a low opinion) of his own talents and character.” (63) One quote from Rick Warren that is commonly attributed to C.S. Lewis sums true humility up quite well, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.” (Day 19) Pride, on the other hand, is more universally understood as being an inflated view of oneself or one’s talents. Pride is considered to be the first of the “deadly sins,” and is commonly considered to be the root of all sin. Pride is idolizing oneself, which violates the first and foremost commandment of having no idols. Every other sin is a result of the prideful assumption that the person knows better than God does. While it is relatively easy to define these terms and to understand them, it is much
Paul Copan reminds us to first define the words pride and humility before we offer a rebuttal. Prides generally accepted definition in today’s culture is having an overinflated view of oneself. To be proud is an attempt to deny ones’ true self and prop ourselves up upon a fake identity. This is the negative side of pride. People who struggle with the pride deal with this because they don’t believe they will be accepted if they present their true selves. Pride is widely seen as negative in today’s culture, that is because it has been heavily tainted by the negative aspects of pride. Paul Copan shows us examples of righteous pride in the bible. Paul took pride and was gratified in his work as an apostle in 2nd Corinthians 2:10-17. Paul also took pride in the early Christians’ usage of God-given abilities and progress in their faith. The key distinction between these two types of pride is when Paul professed pride in others and himself, he realized and recognized God as the great enabler of the abilities. Righteous pride acknowledges our proper place before
Sometimes, we faith followers make jokes about shame in our religions. Shame in the church is a common experience for many church members. Though, not every church has this sort of approach in discipleship and behavioral training. Shame has long been a pronounced interest to me. Most church leaders want the church to be a place of hope and inspiration, but some of us have experienced a tremendous amount of shame, also. Growing up within a very conservative John Wesley style holiness church taught me some life-giving valuable faith lessons. We were taught incredible lessons of living one?s life in a way that reflects one?s values and belief system and being empowered to express such values to others. Great lessons in humility and giving all glory to God abound. The church taught a person is best when honoring a holy lifestyle as best able on Earth, including prayer,
The Oxford Dictionary describes humility as the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance. Many people catch the attention of the media today. For a short while, these people stood at the center of everyone’s attention. It becomes difficult to resist letting one’s pride and ego take over when faced with almost unlimited attention. Sometimes this person might work their way into the spotlight through years of hard work. Others may perform one action to bring all attention to themselves. No matter the circumstance, the way a person behaves in front of others greatly influences their opinion of him or her. Tim Tebow, Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, and Neil Armstrong demonstrated
What is Christianity and why has it been able to develop into a continuously growing and evolving religion?
According to Paul (1999), reflective practice has become a dominant paradigm in second language teacher education in recent years. Further, Biggs (2003) cited that learning new technique for teacing is like the fish that provides a meal for today which same as reflective practice that acts as the net that provides the meal for the rest of one’s life. To begin with, reflective practice has been a major movement since the eighties in teacher education (Calderhead, 1989; Cruickshank &Applegate, 1981; Gore, 1987; Zeichner, 1987). Even more, research acknowledges a number of potential benefits that arise from reflecting on ones’ teaching both for pre-service and in-service teachers (Bailey, 1997; Cruickshank, 1987; Mckay, 2002; Oterman and Kottamp,
Humility is a human characteristic, where one realizes their own insignificance in comparison to other people or circumstances. In a spiritual aspect, humility means putting God and others ahead of our own selfish interests.
A tenet of Buddhist philosophy for centuries, self-compassion has recently emerged as a promising intervention in Western Psychology with the potential to yield greater life satisfaction, social connectedness, emotional intelligence, and happiness while minimizing anxiety, depression, shame, fear of failure, and burnout (Barnard & Curry, 2011). In Buddhist tradition, a self-compassionate individual responds to his/her personal suffering with wisdom, loving-kindness, and mindfulness that extends beyond the self to all others who are suffering (Reyes, 2011). The Western definition of self-compassion derives mainly from the work
A philosophy of Christian education encompasses many aspects that overlap areas of a child 's life that could not be nurtured and molded in a public school setting. Therefore, the Christian philosophy of education must include so much more. The Bible must be used as the basis for the education of children. A child should be taught in a way that will best benefit the individual that God created. He should be trained in his own way, the way he learns best. In order to do that, teachers must be able to assess their students in a manner that will reveal the learning styles that best fit each child. By doing this, the best possible education can be given to each student. Proverbs 22:6 states, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." The ways
The shepherd and sheep relationship is the best illustration for the relationship between pastor and parishioners. When Jesus asked Simon Peter does he love him three times and said to him “Feed my sheep”, the shepherd and flock relationship has been set. Since Jesus is our good shepherd (Jn. 10:11a), he laid out a good example for us to follow - to lay down his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11b) Thus, the wellness of both in and out of the parishioners should always be the concern in the pastors’ hearts. Soul care for the people is essential. Christian friendship is the foundation of Christian soul care. Pastoral ministry including preaching, teaching, and worship forms the broad context of pastoral counseling. Pastoral care is within pastoral ministry but broader than pastoral counseling. God’s love is the source and motivation. Within the pastoral care, there are spiritual direction and pastoral
A pastor has a great responsibility to minister the Word of God and to be a shepherd to his people. The pastor must be committed to biblical truths when he engages the work of the ministry. Some of these truths include: The Bible is the infallible Word of God, his preaching must be from the Word of God, and he must do proper exegesis to get to the authorial intent and proclaim that to his congregation.
Nowadays, not only the competence, intelligence, and intention that can lead people to success, but also the behavior which is one of the factors. Most people may think that the goal of success is money; however, it is the achievement in the short-term, not the long-term. According to Christensen (2010), he has developed and presented several dimensions to students how to measure their lives and one of those ways is the humility. The three reasons why people should be modest are the limitless knowledge, more friends, and self-improvement.