By John Warren

 

Mrs. Petulis was a fixture at Woodland Acres Junior High. I can’t say she was a remarkable teacher for I don’t remember much of what she taught but I do remember her quirky teaching style.

It could have been that I had science the last class of the day and she was just as ready to go home, I know the other side of the story being married to a teacher.

If you did not know this teachers are just as ready for spring break as the students!

Mrs. Petulis would pull out her ruler and bang it on her desk loudly and say, “I love to hit myself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop!”

That one really confused us then we realized she was expressing her frustration for the class not knowing material she had already covered. I think some students gave her the wrong answer so we could watch her bang her ruler again!

I do think she was ready for summer because we came to class one day and she had turned all our desks toward the back of the room. So now we were looking at lockers! Her desk and the blackboard were now in the back of the room behind us and she explained her actions this way, quite matter of factly.

“I am tired of looking at your faces.”

Can you imagine? Things like that you remember.

I watch the world events and the things that happen right here in Orange and I wonder, Does God get tired of us? Does God get tired of us doing the same mistakes over and over? Does God wish he could turn our desks around and not have to look at our faces?

Let me tell you it was a sobering moment in my life when I walked into the class and I was sitting in the back of the room looking at a locker.

Maybe we would learn to live and love and treat one another better if God did turn our desks around. But God does not.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Celebrate with us March 18 at 11 a.m. as we welcome Bishop Scott Jones who will be speaking to us at First United Methodist Church located at 502 North 6^th Street in Orange.

 

John Warren is Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church, 502 North 6^th Street in Orange.