Group Work, Dividing and Conquering, and a Relationship that Doesn't Work that Way

The strangest thing happened in my classroom today.

Granted, it was Valentine’s Day. Mustaches and mustache jokes were running rampant.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard, “I mustache ask you to be mine” followed by a classroom full of giggles, I’d be a pretty rich teacher today. It never got old. Seriously, it was funny every time it was said. I’m dearly-so-thankful that my kiddos have such an overall FUN sense of humor. I don’t know what I’d do if they didn’t.

Aside from all of the excitement of our sugar-filled day, the strangest thing happened in my classroom. For Math lesson today, the kids were given multiplication and division facts all jumbled up. After they figured out the missing numbers, they were supposed to match up the multiplication and corresponding division problems and label them as a “multiplication match.” (Yes, it was complete with hearts – just to give it a Valentine-y edge. :)) For this activity, I put them into partner-groups, so they could work together.

And that’s when the strangeness of it all hit me.

As the kiddos were working “together,” I looked around the room and NO ONE was talking. Silence filled the room. In fact, I heard the air conditioner’s automatic switch turn off. And, at one point, I could literally hear my pen drop. As soon as I noticed this, I called attention to it. “Hey kids, you guys are quieter when we work in ‘groups’ than when you guys just work alone. What’s going on with that? Are you guys working together??”

As soon as I asked, the room erupted with solutions, answers, and explanations.

“Yeah, she’s doing the evens, I’m doing the odds.”

“Yeah, I’m doing all the work, and he’s just copying all my answers.” (You gotta love the sheer honesty of children….haha)

Then, a response hit me like the others didn’t:

“Yeah, Miss Hill, she’s doing all the multiplication ones, and I’m doing the division ones because she doesn’t understand those yet.”

For some weird reason, this response made me get a little introspective of myself, my relationship with God, and my prayer life.

Our lives as Christians are a partnership-of-sorts with God Almighty.

Yes, it’s more of a dependence on Him than anything else. A trust. A hope. A full surrender to His work in our lives. But hang with me for a moment. It’s a partnership. Us + God. Rather, I should say, “God + Us.” To quote Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” 

Life, done correctly, is nothing more (and nothing less) than group work with God. We go through this thing called life as a team. If done appropriately, open lines of communication should be flowing at all times and learning and growth take place all throughout our journey while we’re here on Earth.  The Bible encourages us to “pray without ceasing” and to “hide God’s Word in our hearts, so we won’t sin against God.”

The only way to do true group work is to communicate. Not dividing and conquering.

But how many times are we guilty of that in our lives?  I was thinking today… how many times do I “do the multiplication-type problems” of life (a.k.a. the things I can “handle” on my own) and only leave Him to deal with the “division-problems-of-life” (a.k.a. the things I don’t understand or don’t know yet)? Sad, but true.

Yes, dividing and conquering may get the job done… and it may even seem to be more timely to do so. Just as it did with my students today during Math class. The job was done, yes. The answers were filled in on the sheet, yes. “Classroom control” seemed to be at an all-time peak, yes.

But, you know what? My students still have much to learn after today. I now know that one needs to work one not copying others’ answers, (haha!) and I know that another has yet to learn division. But those things hardly concern me. After all, they’re only 9 and 10 years-old, and all of those factors are par for the course of growing up, learning, and giving Miss Hill a fist-full of “teachable moments.” :) (Believe me, we’ll be working on those things throughout the remainder of the year.)

Most of all, though, today in the classroom, I learned that life is like group work. It requires non-stop communication with God Almighty. We simply can’t copy someone else’s life’s work and possibly learn anything or grow into who we need to be from it all. We simply can't work on all of life's "even" factors and dismiss all the "odds." (Wouldn't that be nice, though, if we could? :) )  We can’t simply “handle” the little, easy, everyday stuff, and only pray through the “stuff we can’t handle,” the “stuff we don’t understand,” or “the stuff we don’t know yet.”  

A relationship with God requires group work. And group work requires communication, not dividing and conquering, to be truly successful.

I’m thankful that our relationship with God is based out of His incredible love for us, and His love simply does not operate on dividing, conquering, and a room full of silence.

Today, listen to God. What is He saying to you?

Today, talk to God. What do you need to say to Him?

Open the lines of communication. And let the real kind of group-work-learning-and-growing begin.