ACIM
Manual For Teachers
What
are the Characteristics
of God's Teachers?
Faithfulness
The extent
of the teacher of God's faithfulness is the measure of his advancement
in the curriculum.
Does
he still select some aspects of his life to bring to his learning,
while keeping others apart?
If so,
his advancement is limited and his trust not yet firmly established.
Faithfulness
is the teacher of God's trust in the Word of God to set all things
right; not some but all.
Generally
his faithfulness begins by resting on just some problems, remaining
carefully limited for a time.
To give
up all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the
world entirely. And that alone is faithfulness. Nothing but that
deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth achieving.
Readiness,
as the text notes, is not mastery.
True faithfulness, however,
does not deviate. Being
consistent it is wholly honest. Being
unswerving it is full of trust.
Being based on fearlessness
it is gentle. Being certain it is joyous, and being confident it
is tolerant. Defenselessness
attends it naturally, and joy is its condition.
Faithfulness, then, combines
in itself the other attributes of God's teachers. It
implies acceptance of the Word of God and His definition of His
Son.
It is to them (the Word of
God and His definition of His Son) that faithfulness in the true
sense is always directed. Toward them it looks, seeking until it
finds. And having found, it rests in quiet certainty on that alone
to which all faithfulness is due. |