Introducing, “Walk the Talk, Dress the Part”
July 13, 2012
When I was a little girl (Sheryl) I played school with my neighborhood friends almost every day of summer vacation. That’s how much I liked school! It is no surprise after all those years of back patio summer school sessions that I became a teacher.
When Cammy was a little girl, and she would never tell you this, but I will, she was a star student in her school, and while she may not have played school every day during summer vacation, she had a deep thirst for learning.
As adults, we both became teachers, whether by vocation or avocation. I spent many years teaching junior high English and Math before moving on to higher education, teaching educators literally around the world, who are furthering their education. Cammy, in the early years of her marriage, became a Math teacher. As a young mother, however, she joined a Bible study, enticed at first by the free babysitting it offered, but then quickly became passionate about studying the Bible inductively. Soon thereafter, she became trained and Precept certified. Twenty years later, she is still diligently studying the Word and teaching it in many venues nationally and internationally.
So what do you get when you take a professional educator and a seasoned and credentialed Bible teacher and put them together? You get a book, “Walk the Talk, Dress the Part” which comes from our united hearts to the hearts of educators all over the world.
In this book, we address the three temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4. Just as it seems reasonable for Jesus to begin His public ministry, He is whisked away by the Spirit into the desert “to be tempted by the devil” – three times. The defeated one suggested that Jesus’ talk could turn stones into bread, that Jesus’ walk could be impressive and significant if He were to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple, and that Jesus’ wardrobe could be arrayed with the power of all the kingdoms. Satan tempted Jesus by appealing to the desire to be relevant, significant, and powerful. However, after each temptation, Jesus out-truthed Satan by saying, “It is written…”
Aren’t these the same appealing areas of vulnerability for us as educators? How natural to want to be relevant while talking to our students, impressive and significant in our profession, and powerful in our classroom kingdoms! Nothing would please the tempter more than to derail our earthly walk, talk, and wardrobe. He doesn’t want us to “walk the talk or dress the part” of being a follower of Christ and a light in a dark and needy world. Like Jesus, we don’t need to outsmart or outmuscle Satan. We need to simply “out-truth” him with the powerful words of God.
Through this book, Cammy and I hope to encourage educators of every kind, professional or not (we are all instructing as we go), everywhere to walk with the Lord, to talk words of worth, and to dress in a wardrobe of patience, kindness, humility, and love as we live out our calling to teach hearts of all ages.
“Walk the Talk, Dress the Part” is available www.amazon.com, or directly from the authors at www.wordsofworth.com