Still Water Moments: The Art of the School Nurse
Still Water Moments
The Art of the School Nurse
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Ahh, the school nurse. When I think of our school’s nurse, I chuckle inside thinking about the various types of excuses students use to seek her care. Without a doubt, there are ones that genuinely need her aid due to an injury, ailment, or routine treatment for a health condition. Then there are “the others”. The ones that go to varying degrees of creativity to cross the threshold of her doorway. There are the ones that want a band aid for a nonexistent cut. The ones that typically “get sick” at the same time each day to try to avoid a particular academic task. The ones that feign an illness because they know a parent is home and they want to join them. My personal favorites are the ones who play during recess as if they are training for a triathlon, then when it’s time to go back inside they say they’ve been battling a headache since the morning and ask to see the nurse. Some students, if left unchecked, will be repetitive visitors to the nurse’s office day after day, week after week. Teachers that recognize the various shenanigans look at themselves like the first line of defense in preventing an unnecessary trip to the nurse. We are helping her to be able to streamline her time to attend to students with genuine medical needs, as well as her administrative duties. We are also preventing students from avoiding completing academic tasks.
Students that are genuinely hurt get the nurse’s care that they need and if they perform any follow up directions she gives, they get better. If they don’t, healing is prolonged. Now, let’s think of times we need spiritual and or emotional healing and how we approach God’s assistance on the matter. We know that God is ever present. He has a solution for any and everything we face. Not soliciting His advice is like being in your doctor’s examining room and not telling him or her about an ailment you’ve been having. For many of us, informing is the easy part. Following the directions given by the doctor is the challenging part. When told to cut down on sugar, carbs, processed foods, caffeine, etc. and increase exercise do we immediately go out and make these lifestyle changes? How do we respond when God gives us directions on how to handle a situation we’ve been praying to Him about? Do we immediately obey? It can be quite challenging if it’s something we don’t want to do.
When we ignore the solution God gives us to solve a matter, we stay stagnant in our walk. He does not change His mind just because we don’t like His instructions for our part in resolving the issue. Admittedly, crucifying the flesh hurts but it is ultimately for our good which will feel better than dealing with the sin of disobedience. We may find ourselves at a crossroads, do we really want to get better, or are we more apt to stay complacent and not make the necessary change(s)? It gets worse if we secretly vie for and enjoy the attention we get from others when we lament about our trial, but that’s another devotion.
Imagine having a deep cut in your hand and the doctor prescribes an ointment to soak it in each day. After each soak, it needs to be wrapped in fresh bandages. Furthermore, use of the hand should be kept to a minimum to allow the cut to close and heal. If you don’t follow one or all of the instructions, you run the risk of hindering the healing process and possible infection. Similarly, and more detrimentally, disobedience to God’s directions opens the door to other negative characteristics such as pride, stubbornness, a hardened heart, etc., (or it could be an indication these traits were already within), which inhibits our spiritual wellbeing and hinders growth. Furthermore, the negative characteristics for which healing is necessary have now multiplied. Returning to the crossroads, we must further ask ourselves if we want to spend more time than necessary attending to a matter and run the risk of making the situation worse or do we follow the Good Shepherd’s leading, trusting Him to heal our spiritual concerns. Jesus said in Luke 11:28, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Reflection: What predicament do you currently find difficult to follow God’s directions to resolve? Are there any underlying issues, e.g. pride, resentment, entitlement, etc. that need to be examined and addressed with God’s loving guidance?
