Meditations

Being a teacher, I constantly think about how to improve my teaching. One thing that I encourage my students to do is to be an active participant in the process of learning. This may sound like common sense. However, if you have ever visited in the typical 8th classroom, you will see that the teacher is the only one being active in the learning process! The students are wanting to absorb the material through osmosis, not active involvement.
I was reading the other day about neuroplasticity. It caught my attention because I am always trying to understand how the brain "files" and "retrieves files" at a later time. If I could get my students to properly "file" the new concept I am teaching, they could "retrieve" that file when they needed the information for a test or quiz.
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. Simply put, every day we experience and learn new things. In order to incorporate this new information into our brains, the brain must reorganize the way it processes that information. Thus, as we learn things, the brain changes.
Now, how in the world does this apply to you? We can change our brain or retrain our brain. This is the goal of physical therapy or speech therapy. With enough practice, your brain could more easily get to the file that it needed so that it becomes second nature to perform in this manner.
I believe that spiritually we can take advantage of this ability of our brain to learn to do things differently. I think that if I practiced "praying without ceasing," it would soon be second nature for me to pray without ceasing. If I seriously practice "rejoicing always in the Lord," it would be my first reaction(instead of my delayed reaction) to rejoice when I am hit with a unexpected pain or trial. I would like to train myself to "be thankful in everything" instead of living a life without recognizing how blessed I am. I have not experienced speech therapy but I can imagine that it is hard work and requires a strong commitment to improve. Why should I think that it will be easy for me to change the way my brain reacts when confronted with the problems of everyday life?
As I made New Year's resolutions this year, I decided I would try to work hard at retraining my brain to do the things that God commanded me to do. I am not trying to do this in my own strength. However, I will have to be a part of the prayer. Sanctification is a life-long process. It does not happen overnight. I would like to be one step closer when 2009 comes to a close.