From childhood and college to her teaching career and turning 80, 11th-grade English teacher Greer Dover has lived a life worth listening to. Each season of her life has shaped her in different ways. To understand the depth of those lessons, it helps to walk through each chapter and the wisdom she carried from it.

Lessons from Childhood

Starting at the beginning of her story, Dover grew up in Athens, GA, as the middle child of three. Her dad was a doctor, and her mom was a stay-at-home mom. However, her mom struggled with alcohol abuse her entire life, creating an environment that fostered insecurity in Dover’s life.

“I didn’t know my mother was an alcoholic until my fiancé at the time told me the word existed,” Dover explained. “I just thought I was a total screw-up, and if I could get it right, then she’d be okay.”

This insecurity led her to seek someone to lean on, so she turned to her mother and continually wished she could be someone she would never be. Despite the challenges she faced, the relationship Dover had with her mom during childhood taught her a lesson she practices every day: leaning on those who are with you.  

“It’s so important to be present with and seek the comfort of those who care for you and love you, rather than worrying and spending your time wanting others to do it,” she stated. “Don’t lose time with those actively with you by stressing about who you wish was there for you and can’t be.” 

Lessons from College

Her wisdom continued to expand in college, yet it wasn’t instant. Dover went to college twice, and the first time, it wasn’t exactly characterized by stability. 

“When I first went to college in 1964, I had literally no business being there,” she said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be, and I learned all the wrong things.”

This first college experience ended when she got pregnant, forcing her to drop out. Dover had to do one of the most difficult things of her life: giving her daughter up for adoption.

However, after marrying and becoming a mother to two boys, then eventually going through a divorce later on in her life, she was taught a lesson about herself that she still deeply values today. 

“When I became a mother and went through my divorce, which both happened between my two college experiences, I got to spend time alone while the kids were with their dad,” she explained. “In doing that, I learned that I was a pretty good person and enjoyed being with myself, which was new.”

Taking this lesson with her, 20 years later, Dover went back to college, attending Georgia Southern to pursue a career in teaching. But being a teacher was never a career she envisioned for herself, shocking herself more than anyone when the Lord called her to pursue it. 

“I’ve often said that the teachers I had in school probably all got together in heaven and said, ‘Who did you say is going to be a teacher?’ because school was not my thing. But the Lord put Mr. Jody right in front of me, and that’s how I ended up here,” she explained. 

Mr. Jody, a retired preacher, and his wife, Mrs. Katherine, a retired teacher, were Dover’s neighbors between her two college experiences. When the hours she was working at the time were getting too much with her kids, Mr. Jody suggested one day that Dover should start teaching. The idea seemed ridiculous to her, yet the calling was too strong to ignore. 

“He’s the one that the Lord put right in front of me because he helped me apply for financial aid and apply to Georgia Southern,” she reflected. “To this day, I do not believe that, had it not been for him, I wouldn’t be teaching for over 40 years.”

Lessons in Faith

Having been raised in the church, Dover knew of God and how He could change people’s lives, as He did with hers, through Mr. Jody. However, she thought that just attending church meant you were a Christian, and she never pursued faith on a larger scale. Actually, she avoided it at times. 

“I remember there was a preacher when we lived in Metter that was always approaching me about accepting Christ, and I just avoided him terribly,” she stated. “If I saw him, I would go so far as to cross the street.”

During her time at Georgia Southern, Dover found herself questioning what direction her life was going. What pushed her to pick up the Bible was her signing up for a geology course—a topic she knew nothing about. 

 I didn’t know one rock from the other, and it made me feel like, what am I doing?” she recalled. “After getting the kids to sleep, I remember getting the Bible from my bookshelf one night. I opened it to Mark 11:22-25, a verse my ex-husband’s aunt continually told to me. When going to bed that night, I was just crying and crying, and I said to myself, ‘Lord, I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t do it.’” 

That pivotal moment was the start of something bigger than Dover could ever imagine. Driving to Georgia Southern the next day, it was clear that the Lord had instantly answered her prayer the night before. 

“When driving to school, something was different, really different, but I couldn’t figure out what it was,” she explained. “Then, it dawned on me: for the first time, I wasn’t crying all the way to school. It was just an indescribable peace. All my problems and worries didn’t vanish, but I knew that there was someone else with me.”

The calmness and comfort the Lord provided became a prominent part of Dover’s life that remains today. Year after year, she continues to grow in her faith and rely on it, leaning on the Lord to guide her life. Specifically, the Lord guided her in her relationship with her mother, allowing her to gain closure. 

“In church one Sunday, a couple of years before my mother died, I kept thinking, ‘make her quit drinking’ over and over. So I prayed the Lord’s prayer,” she recalled. “It says, ‘Forgive those who trespass against us. After that, it just hit me that I can’t change her, but I can change the way I accept her. And that led me to one of my greatest moments—other than my children—which was holding my mother’s hand when she died. And there’s nothing that I would take for that.”

The Lord also played a significant role in her relationship with her father. Her dad committed suicide in 1971, and, as a soft spot in Dover’s life, she became incredibly angry with him for leaving her. However, the Lord showed her a different outlook on her father’s death. 

“There came a point, again in church, when God showed me that my daddy didn’t leave me by choice, but that he was sick and didn’t see another way to ease his pain. From my point of view, when one is emotionally and mentally like that, you are ill, and God doesn’t punish ill people,” she explained.

Presently, her faith continues to flourish. 

“I talk to Him all the time, and I know my relationship with the Lord is strong,” she stated. 

Lessons in Teaching

These moments in faith, college and childhood certainly don’t stay confined to the past. In a full-circle way, the Lord has intertwined each aspect of her journey so that it shines through in how she cares for and interacts with her students. 

“I want to be there for my students,” she emphasized. “I may not be able to solve a kid’s problem, but I can give them a hug, listen and let them know that I care. That’s what people want: to know that someone is there and cares.”

Dover doesn’t just give the kindness of the Lord at Pisgah; she also receives it. Over the years, being a teacher at Mount Pisgah has emphasized one lesson most prominently for her.

“I learned that you don’t get any better than family, friends and faith,” she explained. “Family comes in a lot of ways; I have my blood family, but I also have my school family. Actually, I see my school family more than I see my own family. They are so important to me.”

Lessons with 80 Years 

Most recently, her school family helped Dover celebrate her 80th birthday. Reaching this milestone led her to reflect on her life leading up to the present day.

“We often think, ‘What if I could do that over?’ but I don’t know that if anything in my life had been done over, that I’d be where I am,” she stated. “I never thought I’d be working when I was 80 years old. But 80 is just a number, and this atmosphere at Pisgah keeps me young.”

Each day, she continues to live out the purpose God has called her to do. In fact, that calling is what motivates her, serving as a reminder of how the Lord is actively working through her. 

“What motivates me is the fact that God put me here, and I’ll be here until God tells me I need to find something else to do,” she stated. “It’s up to Him, not me. And with a hug, or a smile, or asking a student how they did in their game, if God says that students need to hear that, I’m here to provide it.” 

Lessons looking forward

As students graduate from Mount Pisgah or simply step beyond the walls of her classroom, Dover hopes that her steady presence may become a lesson they carry far beyond Mount Pisgah.

“I hope students remember that I was caring and that they weren’t just a number that came through the door. I want them to understand that I truly care for and love them,” she explained. “I hope students know and remember that I’m here for them, and I’ve got a hug and a smile for them anytime.”