Paola De la Cruz

As a pre-school teacher at NPC, my primary goal is to impact the lives of my students by drawing them to Jesus. All teacherrs here seek to carry that out by using three biblical mandates to apply in the classroom. The first is to “love God and neighbor” (Matt: 22:37-38); the second is to “make disciples and teach them to obey Jesus” in all his commands for us” (Matt 28: 19); and the third is that “we were created in his image and likeness” (Gen 1:26-28).

For the first mandate, I will seek every day to show that God created everything with love and loves us dearly every day (John 4:7). We will talk about how beautiful it is to love one another,
because that is how the Divine Creator ordains it. Besides being careful for my students, I will teach them through words, songs, and practices to love God and our fellow human beings as we
do ourselves.

For the second mandate of making disciples and obeying God in everything (Matt 28:19-20), I will focus on Adam and Eve who disobeyed when they ate the “forbidden fruit” (Gen. 3:6). I will also apply this command to obey to our routines, to “listen and obey” but also with visuals. Children love to participate when we talk about God. Through all of the year, I want children to become disciples of Jesus, to serve others all their lives to lead others to become disciples of Christ.

For the third mandate—each being made in God’s image to care for creation and His people– I will help my students praise God for His giving the best gift from God to us: being made in His image. I will show, for example, that we must take care of our bodies since God lives in us. Beyond that, He gives us His grace every day to take care of everything He has made. When we go on the patio to play, I tell them God made all nature, flowers, trees, animals, etc. He expects us to make good use of it. It also means we must show the same care for our homes, our things at school, and each other. In all of this, I want them to learn to be grateful for all the wonders that God gives us.

Finally, I pray that God will help them see that God is central to all living and acting out the three mandates gives glory back to God. I want them to be guided by His light and His grace. For me, I hold on to this promise: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).