For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, Colossians 1:9-10
Comparison and judgement are two of the most rife and debilitating snares in life and they have been with us from the minute that fateful decision was made back in the garden of Eden. You don’t have to look far to see how a lot of society almost thrives on these two concepts. We see it in TV shows, in both fictional and reality types of shows. We watch others judge others, we judge those on the shows, we judge ourselves and others by what we see in these shows. How much judgement and comparison are we seeing in the political arena at the moment? How do we navigate this all and how do we teach our children to navigate it, safely and in-turn learn and grow?
How aware are you of exactly how God sees you? Is it something you care or don’t care about? Is it something that you shudder to think of, as you know you and what you’re like on the inside? Or is it something that gives you comfort and a peace-giving reassurance despite the ups and downs you travel through?
This is a time of year where students around the country are put through testing to provide information about them and to compare them with others. It could be easy to fall into the trap of seeing this as more than it is. It does indeed give an idea how they are travelling in some of the disciplines, but not all of them. Whilst we acknowledge that this testing is an important part of monitoring our students’ progress academically, it is not a reflection of the whole student. We know that each and every one of our students has been blessed by God with many different talents. We acknowledge that each student is a unique individual and we celebrate this uniqueness. These tests cannot test what is in the heart and the personalities of our students, or the joys and blessings that they bring to our school every day.
We are fundamentally a school and we must prioritise academic progress to ensure our students are ready for their futures. Yet in a world that can be one of judgements and comparisons and our young people have a variety of possible stresses in their lives at any given time, it is our mission to also bring His peace to them. We believe that through Christ and His love for us we can come to understand how much we are loved, how much we don’t need to compete for His freely given love and gifts. Through this understanding and relationship we get to engage in with Him, we can find healing, joy, restoration, confidence, peace, courage, forgiveness. We are then free of the rubbish that steals our ability to receive, learn and grow. This is the environment we long to foster and maintain for our students, so they can truly reach their potential. This is why we are ‘more than a school’.
Our prayer therefore is that you come to know the love of your Heavenly Father so you (and your children) can freely thrive, grow, learn and contribute to the lives of others.
Chris Mills
Week 4 // News and Updates
