We live in a culture that is constantly pushing us to do more, have more, be more to fit into this image of what others tell us to be so that we can be what society deems as successful. But do we feel fulfilled? Or is this endless running on the hamster wheel the reason that we feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and burnt out? All around us, we hear people complaining, talking words of negativity over themselves, their lives, and the lives of their loved ones that they then walk out. Do we realize what we are doing to ourselves? Do we see that we are allowing the enemy to take a grip on our lives and twist it into something other than what God planned for us?

Our hearts have grown weary from the constant onslaught. In my profession as a teacher, this is especially true. Teacher burn-out is rampant in schools. It’s so intense that teachers are retiring earlier than they ever planned to and young teachers are walking away from the field entirely to stay at home or choose a different path all together. According to a RAND report completed in January of 2022, “73% of teachers feel frequent job-related stress, 28% have symptoms of depression, and 59% report burnout” (Parrish). These are both startling and highly concerning statistics that are not only true for teaching, but have become visible in every single job from stay at home mom, to engineer, to call center worker and beyond.

There are several vitally important concepts that I truly believe will help rid you of the burden you are carrying that leads to these feelings of stress, depression, burnout, and weariness. As you read through them, please take time to genuinely evaluate how these thoughts interact with your current view of your workplace and allow yourself to process through your honest answers. 

1. Your purpose IS NOT your profession. If you’re reading this article and thinking, “My job is who I am,” I’m telling you that it’s not. This is a difficult distinction, but one that will truly shake up the way you value yourself.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told His followers:

First and foremost, you are a child of God. You are beloved by the One who created it all, including your profession. For instance, as a teacher, your purpose is not to be a teacher. You have been placed in that position as a teacher to give you a platform

 where you can be salt and light to the students, parents, and coworkers who you come into contact with during your workday. Therefore, your job as a teacher is a stage through which you can do His work and reach His children as a beacon of hope. For this reason, whether a teacher, cashier, construction worker, server, gym manager, or any other workplace title, you are placed there to be the light and do His will. When you choose to live your life to fulfill His will, you are accomplishing that no matter where you are in your career.

2. You are dearly loved and seen. Many times, it can feel like you might be struggling alone in whatever is troubling you. We find in the book of Joshua that this belief is a falsehood.  

No matter what situation you’re currently in, you are never alone. God is always with you and will NEVER leave you. What can we fear with God as our Conqueror? 

3. Everything you do should be done as if it were for God Himself. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians:

The praise of those around us is often nice to hear. I have yet to meet someone who can tell me that they don’t like when someone compliments them on a job well done. However, as Christians, our main goal in life is not to please man, but to work as if God is our boss. We are on mission for God. If we were reporting all our end of the day rundowns to God, would He say, “Well done, my child?”  

This is not to be confused with thinking that we have to work hard to earn God’s love or salvation, as His love will never have to be earned. This is a form of honoring God and the goodness that He blesses our lives with every day by then carrying out our daily tasks in a way that shows the heavenly ideals. 

4. Everything we have in life is God’s, not ours. This includes our careers. We didn’t earn this career because we are such awesome human beings. God gave us our profession and the ability to do it well. For that reason, if we were to lose them today, God would give us another job where we would then carry out His will and be His light. Therefore, it is our responsibility to steward our jobs well. We don’t work hard at work because it makes us look good, but because we are taking care of what God has entrusted us with.

 If God can trust us to carry out this assignment well, what will He trust us with to manage next? We are only temporary keepers of this job, one day leaving that position for another or retiring to make room for another person to step into that space. However, only we can carry out that position in the way that we do, as uniquely created children of God with unique talents that were also gifts from God. Any other person in our position would be shining His light and completing His will as well, but in their own way, beautifully guided by God Himself. 

 5. We don’t have to earn God’s love. God clothed Himself in flesh and came down to earth to bear the punishment of our sins so that we could then be forgiven and live our eternal lives with Him, as long as we acknowledge Him as our Lord and Savior. The biggest decision of our lives, both earthly and eternally, is that we believe in Him and turn away from sin toward a life of seeking holiness. That journey is one where we, as Christians, will constantly fall short in our efforts. God, knowing our shortcomings, continues to love us through our struggles with sainthood and never turns His eyes from us on our journey, lovingly guiding us along the way.

 With these five perspectives in mind, it then becomes our honor to carry out our professions to the greatest of our abilities for Him, bringing Him glory every step of the way. Reminding ourselves that we don’t have to earn God’s love in the process takes all the pressure off. In this mindset, we are not earning earthly praise, but honoring our beloved Father. All the resulting outcomes are an utter joy where we can focus on His greatness and love for us as well as those who we are interacting with. Cultivating this newly formed mindset within your workplace will have untold positive effects for yourself and those you come in contact with on a daily basis.

You can choose to start fresh today. Don’t give up on yourself. You are doing a beautiful job! You are not living by the world’s standards, but by the heavenly mindset. Every day, you need to realign yourself back with God and what He wants for your life rather than how the world tells you to live. Those efforts, along with your obedience to God, bring amazing goodness into your life and the lives of those around you. Remember that you have the God who created the universe on your side calling you His own. He is such a good father and is so incredibly pleased with His child.

MLA Citation:

Parrish, Cami. “‘I’m tired’: Teachers face mental health crisis due to low pay, pandemic stress, scant support.” Cronkite News, https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/07/26/teachers-mental-health-crisis-pay-covid-pandemic-burnout/. Accessed 17 October 2022.

Like many other professions, teaching itself is easily comparable to that of being a parent as well as our daily interactions with people with whom we work and come in contact with. It is my intention that the heavy emphasis throughout this writing on my vocation as a teacher does not distract from the main message of planting the seed of love in those around you, especially children. This divine goal can be accomplished regardless of your vocation or personal situation. Pray for it to be so and the Holy Spirit will guide you.

There is an awareness that has now settled into my being like a seed planted in fertile soil. My profession as a teacher is a platform for my divine assignment to nurture and take care of God’s children. This understanding influences my daily tasks and work habits. In the constant push of the educational system for higher test scores and more data sets, there is one specific detail that truly matters to God; are my children loved and know they’re loved??? My divine assignment is to fulfill God’s parental desire for us to all feel his love in every way possible.

Jesus himself tells us that children are the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. His conversation with the curious disciples clearly illustrates that.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” ~ Matthew 18:1-5

It is then evident that, as Christians, we are to intentionally look after the best interest of children under our care. Children, with the “lowly position” (Matthew 18:4) that they hold cannot take care of themselves the way that an adult can. As a teacher, our rosters can sometimes reach quite a high number of students. Whether that teacher has five students in their classroom throughout the duration of the school day or 150 students, it is that teacher’s duty to make sure that each of those students are safe, taken care of, and shown that they are noticed and important. These are all ways for someone to show love to another. While these are not always recognized by the recipient as love, they are love none the less.

Throughout the New Testament, planting a seed is frequently talked about. In the parable of the Sower, Jesus gives examples of seeds planted on good vs bad ground.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ~ Matthew 13:3-8

I, as a teacher, am a seed planter. I'm planting love in my students. From the parable of the sower, we learn that a seed doesn’t grow just anywhere. It needs good soil in order to grow. As teachers, we nurture and support the student like a farmer looks after their fields full of crops. The farmer tills and cultivates the ground, making sure there are optimal growing conditions for the soil to better receive the seed and grow it to a healthy, full-sized plant. For a farmer, this process sometimes takes a single growing season, and other times, years to complete. This seed is like a student who we keep an eye on and look after year after year in the hopes that they become a person who spreads love and compassion wherever they go. In that way, teachers are cultivating students to go out and fulfill their own divine assignments. The students themselves will then hopefully go do the same for others in an endlessly beautiful chain reaction of heavenly Holy Spirit inspired love.

In my opinion, this is the harvest that we are hoping and praying for when we “plant” the original seeds of love within the child through our regular interactions with them. Isn’t that potential harvest itself incentive enough to plant the seed in the first place?

To make it even better, this planting of love is a way to bring these children closer to the love of God and to give them the slightest touch of how much goodness is to be found in Heaven. John the Baptist referenced Jesus’s future coming and the harvest he will reap when he told the surrounding crowd at the Jordan River.

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire’’ ~ Matthew 3:12

John the Baptist is providing imagery to show what will happen to those who repent and those who do not. Those who repent of their sins, turn from their sinful ways, and come to God will be accepted into Heaven while those who choose to continue in their sin will not. As teachers, we are working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit to bring these students to God, the ultimate Harvest.