Writing and Education has Power:

Recently, I have been doing some research on famous Christian women in history.  One of the biggest women who inspires me is Hannah More.  Hannah More inspires me for a few reasons, and I believe she and I have very similar interests for being years and generations apart. Hannah cared a lot about education, writing and literature, and working towards equality for all peoples.  

Hannah More loved education.  She loved books and writing in a time where women were not exactly expected to love education. In many of her writings, one will find much discussion about the importance of women and the poor being educated.  She used her love of education for the benefits of her Chrisitan walk through being a big component of starting the Sunday school program as it is today.  She opened so many schools for the poor throughout the country to both assist in giving the children a place to go for a while, but also to teach them about the love of the Lord.  Not every single one of these schools prospered, but many of them did, and it was a good start to the Sunday school program that eventually moved to the United States and beyond.  

Mary Anne Phemister highlights Hannah’s joy over the improvements she sees in the students and the overall community once a new Sunday school had been started. “Hannah wrote to Wilberforce (a very known politician and slave abolitionist) that thirty pupils said their catechism correctly and forty could sing three psalms.  The children learned about cleanliness, decency, and honesty.  She reported that even the most rowdy hard-boiled youngsters came week after week to learn to read. Little by little, the word spread, and as soon as the sisters could find suitable teachers, they opened schools to neighboring localities.”  (Mary Anne Phemister, Hannah More, The Artist as Reformer, page 64) 

Besides her love of education, she also used her love of words to make great strides in both her Christian walk and improving of the world around her.  Hannah wrote many different articles and books centered on her moral and christian beliefs.  She wrote this both with articles about how to best live, and through her fiction novels and writings where her characters had great moral standing and were doing their best to live under Christian principles.

Hannah More did a lot of great things in her life.  However one of the ways she is best known is through her spreading of knowledge about the harm done with keeping slavery around.  She was very much against slavery and often wrote and petitioned against it.  This was the main reason I knew about her, and the part I love the most.  I work really hard to stand up against the injustices happening in the world through my fundraisers and informing others I have against Human Trafficking.  

This is all very much an encouragement to me.  I am a huge lover of education and writing.  I love getting the chance to write what I am learning from either Bible Study/Devotional, church services, or from my everyday life.  This has been a great way for me to learn more and more from writing out my thoughts.  I also am hopeful that I have given others the chance to really grow from my writing. 

I also have a love of education and a love of learning.  I was a teacher for four years where I taught high school Spanish.  Now, I work at a non-profit where I teach K-12 students financial literacy lessons.  I have loved both of those jobs.  I love making lessons for the students.  I love when I can think of a fun activity or make a nice powerpoint presentation.  But, of course, my favorite part is when the students learn something new and they really understand a new concept.  Besides teaching in a school or a job setting, I also have spent a lot of time volunteering in Sunday schools.  I loved Sunday school when I was a kid, and I dreamed I would be a Sunday school teacher one day.  I am glad I have finally been given an opportunity to teach young souls about Jesus and His love for Him.  

There are few important takeaways I want those reading to get.  The first one is to realize the importance of words and education.  Even if you are not necessarily a person who is in love with education, I think it can be very important to still realize the power education can have on the community around us.  It can help us understand the importance of educating everyone from the lower classes to the higher classes.  I also will say it is important to remember to use words wisely.  They can have a lot of power on many different people. 

The second main takeaway is to find someone to inspire you.  Those role models will not be perfect, as no one but Jesus is.  However, it can be very helpful to have other people to inspire us to help us make wise choices and to help us grow more and more of how we want to be.  Then always remember you can be someone else’s role model.  Always spend time learning from others and learning and be willing to be the teacher to someone else.  Listen to the great words from Titus 2:7-8, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good.  In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”