Just a Thought: Pencil Reminders!

Mike was an intelligent boy, but not quick in his responses. It seemed he always needed a moment to think through his answers before he gave them, never being sure of what he first thought the answer might be.

That tendency didn’t work well with one of the teaching methods his fourth grade teacher liked to use. They were studying math, learning the multiplication tables. The methodology the teacher was using was a game that involved two students standing and seeing who could answer a math flash-card first, like “3 x 4”. The first to answer the equation correctly would get to continue playing the game.

Mike did not do well in this exercise. When his turn came and the card flashed, he would always hesitate, contemplate, and take too long to give an answer. Long before he could reason his answer through, the other student would give the answer. That left both Mike and his teacher a little (maybe a lot) frustrated.

However, one day as the teacher was playing this game, he again flashed the card at Mike and the other competing student: “4 x 4”. For the first time, Mike immediately shouted back, “16!”, winning the round. The teacher, in his surprise at Mike’s answer, flipped the pencil he was carrying into the air. It stuck – solidly – into the acoustic ceiling tiles. He and the whole class stared at it and then began to laugh.

The teacher looking up said, “I’m not going to take that pencil down. It is going to stay there as a remembrance that Mike, you can do it! You did great! I couldn’t be prouder!” And he did exactly that. Mike proudly told the story to his parents as he showed them the pencil in the ceiling at his school’s Open House.

Markers that indicate passages of life are important. That’s why they give certificates of completion of training, licenses, and diplomas. They tell us someone is capable, has learned, has passed a standard, and has stuck with it to the end. They help give confidence both to the recipient and to whoever might be considering them for employment.

In Joshua 4:7b, the Bible records: “These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” A memorial to what? To the fact that God was their God. That God was faithful and true. That God had brought them through flood waters and delivered them to the promised land with mighty miracles. (Read the whole story in Joshua 3 and 4). God had done just what He said He would do. The twelve-stone marker was a memorial to that and a teaching tool reminder for their children.

What kind of markers or memorials do you think we could – or should – put up for our children and others who follow after us? Maybe something to remind them of a significant time the family spent together? Maybe something that reminds them that we love them? Maybe something to remind them of a special victory in their lives – like a pencil stuck in the ceiling?

- Just a Thought