Still, school is starting. The dog days of summer lead to full backpacks, lunchboxes filled with mama’s love, pens, pencils, paper, binders, and homework. School has the potential to be so much more than the tools of school.
Have you ever felt like the old adage, “Oh, honey, just do your best,” sounds more like, “Aw, I realize you really can’t do better, so you don’t have to try so hard.” Listen the next time someone says that. Are they really promoting someone doing their best work?
I realize different children have different gifts. I realize not every gift turns into an Einstein, Margaret Thatcher, Steve Jobs, Emeril, Mother Teresa, or Billy Graham. But as moms, we want to help our children be all Christ called them to be and we want them to become adults who will strive to be all they are called to be…
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be”(Psalm 139: 14-16)
Each of us arrive in the world with a plan, designed for joy and fulfillment, a job, a tool box with God-designed tools to help us in our journey, and one awesome safety net. Unfortunately, our culture has created a couch-potato-mentality which can interfere with God’s plan for our lives and our children’s lives.
Removing God from education takes the holistic purpose out of education. When your job is just a job, where’s the nobleness, the drive? When your job is God-inspired, your talent God-given, and your success a result of God Faith, your job becomes more than a job.
An engineer doesn’t just create cars or pads for entertainment. An engineer creates jobs that give families the means to feed, clothe, support, and grow secure families. If you only see yourself as the engineer, you don’t see God’s plan for you. If you see the effect of a job well done, then you start getting the idea.
Helping just one person is just as noble as the one helping one thousand. However, we are to fully use the gifts God placed in us to the fullest of our abilities.
Disappointingly, what I have seen in the classroom and, at times, in my own children is a take-for-granted attitude about who they are in Christ and how that affects them in the classroom. They are willing to talk the talk but not walk the talk.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecc 9:10) is the motto I hope to instill in my children.
In my college classroom, Christian students enter, itching for an opportunity to evangelize the radical left faculty. Sadly, their witness leaves them open for derision and tags of hypocrisy. When a Christian student comes to class habitually late, comes un-prepared for in-class work, doesn’t spell-check, or follow directions, that behavior erodes the strength of their witness.
Work ethic is a reflection of Christ in you. Maybe you don’t have the skill to write an A essay, but you do have the skill to come on time, prepared, and the work ethic to learn. I would rather have a student with a strong work ethic in my class than a student with tremendous ability. Work ethic trumps ability any time.
My oldest son struggled with pre-calculus. “I’m just not good at it anymore,” he bemoaned. The excuse sounded great, but that is what it was–an excuse to back down from the challenge.
God gives us gifts. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Our strengths and our giftedness may be able to carry us for a while. For some, math might be easy early on, or reading, or language. However, at some point, our strengths and gifts can no longer carry us. In order to take that gift to the next level, work ethic needs to be applied.
Yes, whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work Ethic dedicated to God unlocks blessing, growing good things within our souls.
WHAT ARE SOME WAYS YOU CAN HELP YOUR CHILDREN BECOME WHO GOD CREATED THEM TO BE? HOW CAN YOU HELP THE EMBRACE A STRONG WORK ETHIC AND GO BACK TO SCHOL WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT?
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