This year I got roped into coaching baseball...again. Truth be told, I love it. I loved coaching my son's team this year, and last year, and the years before. But here's a little secret. I'm not actually very good at baseball. I played some backyard baseball growing up. A little softball. But I never played organized baseball. Most of what I know has been learned on the fly.

That's where reels come in. I've probably watched hundreds of short coaching videos over the past couple of seasons. Need a drill for catching fly balls? There's a reel. Need help teaching a kid to throw? There's a reel. Need a better way to explain hitting? There's a reel. I've learned a lot.

But I also noticed something. Many coaches were teaching almost exactly the same drills. Yet one coach stood apart from the rest. Coach Ballgame. It wasn't because he knew something no one else knew. It was because he taught with joy, wonder, patience, encouragement, fun. It was contagious.

Watching him made me realize something that Jesus pointed out long ago, teaching is never just about transferring information. Teachers always transfer something of themselves. Jesus said,

"The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher." Luke 6:40

He didn't say the student would simply know what the teacher knows. He said the student would become like the teacher. That's formation.

We often think we're just collecting information. We watch another reel. Listen to another podcast. Read another article. Scroll through another feed. But slowly we begin absorbing attitudes, habits, ways of seeing the world, and ways of treating people. Our teachers shape us.

The voices we listen to every day, our coaches, our pastors, our podcasts, our news feeds, our social media, our favorite authors, and our influencers are all teaching us something. But they're also shaping us into someone.

So pay attention to your teachers. Look for people who are not only wise, but good. People who tell the truth with kindness. People who possess knowledge wrapped in humility. Because teachers pass on far more than information. They pass on formation.

Choose your teachers carefully, because long before they change your mind, they begin shaping your heart.