On facing oppositions

Contributed by Brian Nils S. Santos, Teacher III – Bataan National High School

Let me start with the word “oppositions” and then the question, “How do we handle them?”One of the biggest setbacks that a teacher can experience is handling oppositions. Every day, we are inundated by adversities – the struggle of motivating and meeting the needs of the learners, financial uncertainties, indecisiveness of those tasked to make decisions, and the neck-deep pile of paper works that sometimes clash with our personal skirmishes

Utterly overwhelming!  The question now is, “how can we survive and end up triumphant over all these adversaries – oppositions?

In the book of Nehemiah Chapter 4 verses 1-23 is the story when Nehemiah called the attention of the Israelites to come together and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. While working, two oppositions came in the form of flesh, Sanballat and Tobiah. They ridiculed, threatened and discouraged Nehemiah and his men from rebuilding the wall. Surprisingly, Nehemiah and his men did not fight back. They responded differently and finished the work God called them to do.

Thinking about it, nowadays, if I were in Nehemiah’s shoes, I would have replied with equally insulting text messages or even worse, I would have posted a hate status about them on Facebook. For us to end up like Nehemiah and his men, here are some lessons we can learn from them:

First, we should “be proactive and not be reactive.” How are we when oppositions come to us? How are we when people are against us? How are we when situations are unfavorable? It is easy to react and it is a lot easier to go on a full blast attack. However, being reactive will not benefit us and the situation. Learn from Nehemiah. He shrugged off the accusations and ignored the negative circumstances against the rebuilding of the wall. He continued doing good work and upheld his values, respecting these men and leaving things to God.

Most of the time, we tend to react on situations and on people. We think that by getting back at them would place us in the best position but in reality, it wouldn’t. Biting back will not make us dominant over the circumstances and the people we are in conflict with. It will only cause more pain, discouragements and disappointments around us.

What should we do then? Confront the problem. Find solutions and act on them rather than use up all your time, energy and resources on looking for people to blame for the situation. Fault finding and pinpointing had never solved problems. If your problem concerns a person, go to the person and discuss the issue that need to be resolved. Settle the issue and make peace. Resolution only takes place when we take actions, by being proactive!

Second lesson would be “encouragement”. When things get discouraging, do we add up to it by being pessimistic and negative? Or do we build others up by being the voice of reason and encouragement? Nehemiah noticed his men’s strength was failing because of the burden and the insults being hurled at them. In verse 14, Nehemiah lifted their spirits up with encouraging words and with a reminder of their mission and their calling. It is easier to be affected by the situation and let the virus of grumbling and discouragement seep into our system, disabling us, weakening us and leading us to death.

Another option is to be an antibody of positivity to combat the illness of negativity; cleansing and saturating the pessimism that binds the corners of our classrooms, offices and homes.

The third lesson is “to be ready”. We have to be ready when opposition comes. We have to have weapons as we continue the good work entrusted to us, as teachers. These are not weapons of mass destruction but weapons to sharpen the minds of the learners, armaments to extinguish the oppression of the existing culture, and the heavy artilleries to bombard ourselves and others with knowledge, wisdom, aspirations, good thoughts and positivity.

To sum things up, oppositions are not the real enemy. It is actually how we respond to them, simply because we can never navigate or foresee what the future brings. Our situations are beyond our control, but the good news is that we can have full control of ourselves – our thinking, our emotions and our response.

Hence, to be excellent in the work we are called to do, let us choose to be proactive, be an encouragement and always be ready to throw negativities out of the window.