Billy Graham....and the 4 Cs

I was very saddened last week to hear about the death of our nation’s pastor.  Billy Graham was someone who I have always admired. Not only had I admired him for his biblical teachings and Godliness, I have loved his passion for his beliefs.  When my husband and I married, someone game us a book that described how to stay married, according to Billy Graham. It was a simple formula made of the 4 Cs: Cherish each other, Communicate, Compromise, and live a Christ Centered life. I will say that in my 20+ years of marriage, I have failed at all 4 of those multiple times through the years….sometimes more than one at the same time. Yet, I have always gone back to those 4 Cs. They are yet so very simple and so hard all at the same time.

As I listened last week to reporter after reporter who commentated on the life of Billy Graham, I realized that they were trying to make him too complicated. Billy Graham did wonderful things, but he wasn’t a complex man. He was rather simple. I thought about the 4 Cs that I often fall back to in my marriage. I realized that while Reverend Graham came up with those 4Cs for any married couple, they really apply to everything we do-marriage, working in any environment, parenting, friendships, and teaching.

Many of my Monday musings describe the importance of building relationships with our students-and each other. How very important it is to cherish those students in our class each day.For some of them, you’re the only person who does cherish them. Each student in 1^st-5^th grade, and probably 5K if you believe in divine intervention, were placed in your classroom for a reason. Take the time to get to know each student-not just as a learner, but as a person. 

I remember one time in a particular quarrel with my husband, he stated that communication in our family was a 4 letter word. I quickly reminded him that if would listen, our communication would be just fine. I quickly learned that communication was more about listening than it was about talking, that the silent treatment is for the most immature, and that expressing my feelings was important. Isn’t this so true about working in a building with other passionate folks?  Communication is key to a successful teacher. Communicating with administration, parents, students, and those on our team. Without effective communication, others are let with a vacuum of not knowing….and vacuums are made to be full…when we don’t fill it, others will.

Compromise is such a hard pill to swallow because we all want to be right and it is natural to want our way. It amuses me each summer the number of emails I get from teachers asking to eat lunch at 12:00.  I understand. No one wants to eat lunch at 10:45 and it is hard to wait until 1:10 to eat lunch as well. Yet, not everyone can eat at 12:00-the cafeteria can’t hold 500 students all at once- nor can the café staff feed 500 students all at once. I want my way every single day. I want things done my way-on my timeline-in the way that I would do it, but guess what-if I went around expecting that I would be one miserable human. The greatest enemy of relationships is selfishness.  I never feel that we can always give in each time to keep peace-if you do that- you’re just as wrong as one who refuses to compromise. You must know what you believe in and what you’re willing to compromise about-never compromising on your pedagogical believes.

Finally, making Christ the center of your lives is foundational. Now, I know this is blog about school and I am not “supposed” to talk about God in schools (Just as a side bar, I get so angry when folks say that God is not in schools and that is what is wrong with schools), but I believe that there is this higher power in our world, and I just happen to believe that it is God. I believe that we are to strive to do more right than wrong, more good than evil, and more love than hate. When we are striving to be good people, we naturally do good things.

You see, Billy Graham was a simple man, because this thing we call life, is not all that hard after all.  All those lessons can be applied to our teaching life and with just a little effort we can be just as devoted as he was to what we believe so strongly.