An ancient legend recounts how the apostle John had a pet partridge he enjoyed feeding and tending to. One day a hunter visited him and was astonished to see him playing with the bird. ‘I’m surprised to see you engaged in such amusement when there are great matters related to the ministry with which you could be busy.’ John replied, ‘Do you always keep your bow bent?’ The hunter said, ‘No, that would render it useless. I loosen the string unless I am hunting.’ The apostle nodded and said, ‘Me too; I unbend my mind for the same reason.’
Right now all students need to ‘unbend’ their minds and hit the pause button on school. Term One has run its race, and despite its ending being anything but normal and what we would have expected, it is done. As teachers are working this week to ensure Mueller’s Online learning platform is ready to go next term, students need to ‘press pause’ on starting Term Two early or engaging with its content before the holiday period is finished. They each have their own ‘partridges’ to tend to and play with.
While current societal restrictions mean many of our regular sources of relaxation and fun typically enjoyed during a holiday period have been removed, students should be using this next couple of weeks to catch up on sleep, rest, and enjoy their days without the routine, daily demands, and deadlines school brings.
We will need to help them do this by being intentional at home. With much of the ‘non-essential’ clutter of our hectic lives having been stripped away, time is now available for families to invest more in one another, create quality time, and at a deeper level connect (or re-connect) with each other again.
Jesus himself often modelled the principle of pausing and resting during his time of ministry here on earth. Mark 6:31 describes Jesus issuing this instruction to his disciples to follow suit. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.”
As you head into the holiday period, and whatever that may look like for you and your family, I encourage you to find meaningful and intentional ways to spend quality time and connect with each other. There are plenty of online resources which offer creative and fun ways to do this while at home. Here are six such ways, to help you and your children press pause this holiday period: 6 Ways to Help Press Pause
Ben Stiller
