Love Comes Softly

Today is Sunday, but it's also Tuesday. You see, this week our university is going to be off for the National Day Holiday. For some reason, though, we can't have the whole week off, only three school days (Wed.-Fri.). So we are switching Monday and Tuesdays classes to the Saturday and Sunday before in order to have our week off. Sound confusing? It is. Confusing and busy.

I was faced with the problem of teaching two video English classes today that will be off schedule with the rest of my freshmen classes. So, I thankfully accepted the advice of veteran teachers and showed an English film. "Love Comes Softly", specifically.

Perhaps you never really enjoy a kid's movie until you watch it with enthusiastic kids. Perhaps you never really enjoy any movie until you watch it with Chinese students. They get more "into" movies than anyone I've seen. This morning, my students giggled at the romantic parts, they gasped aloud at the suspenseful parts, and many of them were wiping away tears at the sad parts. As I watched them experiencing the film, I was drawn into the emotion of the story myself. One character, in particular, displays a calm, confident faith. To many of them, his words and actions were totally different than what they have ever seen. I noticed several of them watching me closely when he shared his beliefs.

And I was so humbled. What do they see when they watch me? They watch me every class just as closely as they were watching that film. Do they see faith, love, and calm confidence? Do they see hypocrisy? Do they see the One that I want them to see or do they only see me?