WISDOM FROM ANNE (REALLY L.M. MONTGOMERY)

From Anne of Avonlea, conversation between Anne and Mrs. Allan ~

(Mrs. Allan) - "...You've worked very hard this past year and you have succeeded."
(Anne) - "Oh, I don't know. I've come so far short in so many things. I haven't done what I meant to do when I began to teach last fall. . . . I haven't lived up to my ideals."
"None of us ever do," said Mrs. Allan with a sigh. "But then, Anne, you know what Lowell says, 'Not failure but low aim is crime.' We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals, Anne."


Anne, reflecting on her past two years teaching at Avonlea School ~

"For two years she had worked earnestly and faithfully, making many mistakes and learning from them. She had had her reward. She had taught her scholars something, but she felt that they had taught her much more . . . lessons of tenderness, self-control, innocent wisdom, lore of childish hearts. Perhaps she had not succeeded in 'inspiring' any wonderful ambitions in her pupils, but she had taught them, more by her own sweet personality than by all her careful precepts, that it was good and necessary in the years that were before them to live their lives finely and graciously, holding fast to truth and courtesy and kindness, keeping aloof from all that savored of falsehood and meanness and vulgarity. They were, perhaps, all unconscious of having learned such lessons; but they would remember and practice them long after they had forgotten the captial of Afghanistan and the dates of the Wars of the Roses."

I wish I knew more of L.M. Montgomery. She poured so much beauty and wisdom into these books. I'm grateful that I can appreciate it now. If I had read these books as an unsaved teenager they wouldn't have had nearly the impact they have now. I like these two quotations because they put into perspective what successful teaching really is. I've been thinking about success lately and how it should be defined and quantified - in God's eyes, not mine. Anne started out with very high and lofty ideals. I am very much like Anne and I suspect most homeschoolers can relate as well. She had dreams of how she would impact her students. She realized after two years of teaching what a lot of homeschoolers come to realize, hopefully sooner than later - teaching and pouring your life into your students (children) changes the teacher more than the student. You realize that real success is defined by changed hearts - yours and, Lord willing, your students' (childrens'). This morning I came across a post that speaks to this very thing. Thank you Kari, from Healed Waters.


Another conversation between Anne and Mrs. Allan ~

(Anne) - "...Perhaps college may be around the bend in the road, but I haven't got to the bend yet and I don't think much about it lest I might grow discontented."
(Mrs. Allan) - "Well, I should like to see you go to college, Anne; but if you never do, don't be discontented about it. We make our own lives wherever we are, after all . . . college can only help us to do it more easily. They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them, not what we get out. Life is rich and full here . . . everywhere . . . if we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fulness."

I love Mrs. Allan. Her character has so much depth and wisdom. No matter what Anne is struggling with, Mrs. Allan comes along as a faithful older woman and imparts words of wisdom and beauty. Her advice to Anne here is very profound. The depth and impact of our lives consists in what we put into them not what we get out. Sometimes I wish there was more excitement in my life, but what I really mean is I wish I were doing something more profound in the world's eyes, something that would make a mark. God knows better. He knows that would only feed my pride and fleshly desire to impress others. Mrs. Allan says that anyone's life can be rich and full if we only learn to embrace it fully. In a later book Anne is talking with an old college friend about she's been doing with her life. The friend laments that Anne had given up writing and the noteriety that could have come from that. Anne wisely responds that she hasn't given up writing. She's writing something different now - living epistles. Her children were her legacy. She and Gilbert end up raising six children who would have more impact on the world than a writing career ever would. Let us never underestimate the quiet impact a God fearing mother and father can have on their children and the generations to come. What we're doing "in the trenches" really does matter.


Anne's reflections on what she has learned at Redmond, from Anne of the Island ~

"I think," said Anne slowly, "that I really have learned to look upon each little hindrance as a jest and each great one as the foreshadowing of victory. Summing up, I think that is what Redmond has given me."

I don't know if L.M. Montgomery was a Christian but this quote has a lot of underlying spiritual meaning for me. For the Christian, we know that God works everything in our lives for our good. Everything that comes into our lives is from the hand of God, even trials, setbacks and suffering. Anne says that every great hindrance is a foreshadowing of victory. I think God wants us to think of our troubles in this way too. God is working through our troubles to make us more like Christ. We also know from 2 Corinthians 4:17 that, "...our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." I've been experiencing some "soul trouble" this past week. I experienced what I would've called a failure. It was the worst thing that I thought could've come out of the situation. But God has been producing a spiritual victory in me out of this "failure". This brings me back to the definition of success. I am not equipped to define what true success really is. And in my desire to always define and quantify my experiences, I miss the real lessons that God wants me to learn. I need to get my eyes off myself and fix them on what is unseen. As Mrs. Allan says, I need to open my heart to all the richness and fulness of life that is already right in front of me.