This is a guest post from Jason Ayres – a teacher in Sydney, Australia who has guest posted on this blog before.  Jason - who suffers from cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects brain and nervous system functions - shares a lesson he learned from while working as a Bible teacher with young children.  If you too are interested in guest posting on my blog, please visit my Guest Post guidelines for more info.

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James 4:8

An elderly neighbour of mine (John) has been working as a full time school teacher for many years.  John is both a good friend and a mentor to me as well.  He gives me great advice on teaching kids – advice that has helped me over the past 11 years as I’ve been teaching Bible lessons to young children at school.

One of the pieces of advice that John gave me was to occasionally stop everything and listen to the children – their comments, their questions, their insights (which turned out to be pretty good parenting advice as well).

At times, it’s burdensome to listen to their sometimes rambling thoughts, but it’s worth it because every now and then, I feel as if God Himself is speaking through those children.

One of those times came recently.  I was struggling to get the children to understand what I was speaking about.  The subject was “encouragement” and it just seemed a bit difficult for them to grasp.  So I tried to use different words and expressions to get the message across, but all to no avail.

Then suddenly – in the midst of my failing efforts – one student raised his hand.  I thought he wanted to ask a question but instead he wanted to help his poor teacher out.

"In my church,” he said with his wonderful Tanzanian accent, “we are taught A, B, C, D."

“Huh?” I thought to myself.  "You’re taught the alphabet?" I responded.  “What does that have to do with our Bible lesson on encouragement?”

“No, not the alphabet” he said.  “A, B, C, D:  Always, Build up, Cheer up, Draw Near.”

Only his second year at school, but so well spoken.  I was impressed at his summary of my lesson.  I couldn't have put it better myself (obviously!).

I understood the A (Always) and the B (Build up) and the C (Cheer up)... but what about the D (Draw near)?  Where did that come from?

And then it clicked.  To be of encouragement to others, I must “draw near.”

First of all, I must draw near to God – in both my quiet time of prayer and also in the midst of the noise and rush of family and school/work life.  When a situation presents itself that I have to respond to quickly, I must find a way to “draw near” to God, even if I only have a moment to whisper a silent prayer.

Secondly, I must draw near to the other person.  I have to put my 'self' to one side for a moment, that I might understand them more clearly.  I can not be focused on myself and another person at the same time.

That’s exactly what little James said (the student from Tanzania) and that’s also what big James (author from the Bible) said as well.

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James 4:8