Odds are your classroom is covered in hearts right now. They might be hanging from your ceiling. They are probably scattered throughout your weekly newsletter. Who knows? Maybe you even have them on your classroom windows.

Love is in the air! The hearts are wonderful. The treats are delicious. The parties are fun. This time of year is exciting to celebrate.

When we teach our students about love, we inevitably teach them John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” and 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us”. There are other “love” passages from the Bible that we might memorize with our class as well, but the verse for today, might not be the first one to come to mind.
“Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.” Psalm 119:1.

Sometimes when we think of the law, we don’t always think of it as loving. When we have this mindset, we miss out on the wonderful privileges that are attached with keeping the law. The law keeps us close to God. It keeps us on the straight and narrow path to righteousness.

When we present our classroom rules at the beginning of the year, they are not to frustrate or make things difficult for our students. No, they are to keep things running smoothly, and make our classroom safe, and to allow us to have fun with each other as we learn.

“Walking in the way of the Lord” can be difficult to do, due to our sinful nature, but “blessed are those whose ways are blameless”. The word translated “blameless” here actually means “complete”. The psalmist is talking about a person who is completely dedicated to the Lord, a person who has fully surrendered themselves to God. In that there is great blessing because we know a life of complete surrender is a life that relies totally on God and his mercy.

That mercy of God, given to us in Christ, is what calls us to love as we walk in his ways. His forgiveness moves us past our failures and renews us to take up the call to love. Our complete surrender leads us to call on God for help even as we encourage our students to do the same. For he loves them and he hears their cries to him.

So let’s joyfully take up the task!