A word to the wise teacher

"The teaching work should under all conditions be actively pursued by the believers because divine confirmations are dependent upon it. Should a Bahá’í refrain from being fully, vigorously and wholeheartedly involved in the teaching work he will undoubtedly be deprived of the blessings of the Abhá Kingdom. Even so, this activity should be tempered with wisdom—not that wisdom which requireth one to be silent and forgetful of such an obligation, but rather that which requireth one to display divine tolerance, love, kindness, patience, a goodly character, and holy deeds. In brief, encourage the friends individually to teach the Cause of God and draw their attention to this meaning of wisdom mentioned in the Writings, which is itself the essence of teaching the Faith—but all this to be done with the greatest tolerance, so that heavenly assistance and divine confirmation may aid the friends."
-'Abdu'l-Bahá

Thank you Abdu'l-Bahá! There's so much wisdom to be gleaned herein. Words cannot convey the sense of relief I felt in reading this quote, which helps to set at bay some of the struggles I have felt with the purpose of teaching and seeing how others are at times teaching the Bahá'í Faith. I particularly love the line: "Even so, this activity should be tempered with wisdom." We must not blindly teach! By God no! We must illumine and seek to perfect our own selves in the process of teaching. We must, in all times, demonstrate our faith through our deeds, particularly as we are "teaching" (or, let's call it sharing). We must not seek to try to win others over to our Faith or point of view for the sake of doing so. Nay. Rather, we must teach/share because we love the Truth and yearn to more fully discover it. We must teach/share in order to build connections with others that are based in the truest nature of all things (which, if you will, may be what some call the Holy Spirit).

I'd love to hear your thoughts about teaching...