It's Up to Us, Not Just Our Shepherds

I was cleaning a bit today and found this journal entry from some years ago:

In my Specific Methods in English textbook, Exploring and Teaching the Language Arts, something in the chapter we discussed last night really riles me. In chapter 10, there's a section called, "Back to the Basics". In this section, it talked about how people blame English teachers for people not speaking and writing using "proper" English.

This is what I wrote in the margin: "Why is everything always up to teachers? They get blamed for what people don't know, but since they have to teach people everything, what do they expect? If parents and other adults don't reinforce what teachers teach, well...there's only so much teachers can do..."

This reminds me of Pastor Jeff. As a pastor, there is only so much he can do in trying to teach us the Word and about God. We often expect pastors to tell us everything there is to know about the Bible and God, and we often blame them when we don't know as much as we think we should. If we expect pastors to teach us everything about God and His Word, then no wonder we don't know much. If we don't get into the Word ourselves to reinforce and memorize and hide in our hearts, then who are we to blame our pastors? We have to be active in learning the Word, not passive. 

Pastors are our shepherds, not our spoon-feeders. Shepherds lead and guide their sheep; they don't give them everything they want when they want it. Shepherds try to protect their sheep and care for their sheep, but the shepherd can't do much if his sheep choose not to eat or put one foot in front of the other to follow him. Yes, the shepherd may carry a sheep,   but on;y until that sheep can walk on its own. The shepherd can only carry one sheep at a time, and only for so long. The shepherd needs to rest, too. Yes, the shepherd would breathe for his sheep if he could, but that's not what God intended. God made sheep to do their part, as well.

So true.