Servants of A Calling We Are Powerless to Accomplish!

What does it mean to steward well the education of a child!?  What a calling!  We can’t begin to answer the question without the end view in mind – for certainly the education of a little heart and mind must begin with eternity in view.

What are the hopes and goals we have for our students?  Of course we want them to know all the academic things they need to know, and we want them to know these things with excellence and mastery.  But we want so much more than that!  As our pastor often reminds us, “We never mature beyond the cross.”  What our students need each day, each year, is to be able to think Christianly as it applies to all the things they learn and encounter in life; to learn the Gospel (day in and day out) and to learn how the truth of God’s Word impacts each moment of life; each task and position they are called to, and to always remember that they are, “great sinners who have a great Savior” (to loosely quote John Newton).

I graduated from LCS in 1997 after attending K-12th.  I now have 4 children of my own ranging from 1st to 9th grade.  I am very grateful to be able to send them to Lakeland Christian to continue their education “in the light of God’s Word,” but more than that, to begin to develop their Christian world and life view beyond academics. 

When my children have had tough things happen, their teachers and administrators have lovingly supported them through prayer and Biblical encouragement.  There have been times that the same things we have taught them at home were reinforced at school and really “stuck” for the first time (because a beloved teacher shared that truth!). My 9th grade daughter, Della Kate, often references a passage on worry from Matthew 6, because when she was struggling with something in 3rd grade, her teacher pointed these verses out to her. Mrs. Nilius reminded my daughter that worrying wouldn’t change anything, and that her Heavenly Father cared so much for her that my daughter could trust Him with her future. These were verses Della Kate had heard plenty of times! But her teacher had developed a sweet relationship with her, and the Holy Spirit used Mrs. Nilius’s willingness to share encouraging scripture that day to work these truths deep into my daughter’s heart.

I chose LCS based on who would help me most in teaching my children (and teens) to think and act Biblically. When they are asking good questions, developing leadership skills, sad, struggling, cheating, lying, being unkind to friends, being treated unkindly by others, needing help resolving conflict, learning how to be servant hearted instead of selfish, or discouraged. And, my kiddos have benefited greatly from wise and loving guidance from their teachers for every one of those challenges! 

As I think about my own time as a student at LCS, I am reminded of specific conversations with teachers and administrators that served as both rebuke and encouragement to me, and those lessons still shape me today.  

When my kids have conflicts with peers or teachers, I want them to be engaged in biblical peacemaking. And to see repentance and faith lived out in the lives of their teachers, coaches, and friends.

I want them to learn how to learn, recognizing the Lordship of Christ in all things and learning how to bring all things under His authority.  I want them to engage our culture for Christ, without being influenced wrongly.  How can we teach our children to recognize the false teachings of our culture?  By building them up in the truth!  

Life without the Word of God is absurd.  Our calling is to teach our children how to apply their Christian world and life view to their young lives, college years, occupations, marriages, parenting, civic responsibilities, and church service.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:5-8

Having my children at LCS is not the only way to obey God’s command in Deut 6:5-8. As well as…

“We will not hide them from their children, but tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done . . . so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments . . .”

Psalm 78

But, it is one way that the Lord has provided for us to do those things!

We are servants of a calling we are powerless to accomplish on our own!

We are dependent upon the faithfulness and power of God and the Holy Spirit at work in the hearts and minds of our children.  Let us continue to pray that LCS would be faithful to its mission, and that our students would grow in grace each year!

Of course, LCS is just one of three foundational components helping to support the Christian teaching taking place within the family and the church.  As you continue to teach your children at home, here are some of our favorite resources for family worship.  Sometimes we read through books of the Bible together -a few verses or a chapter at a time- (a great approach for older kids), but sometimes we use other books as well! 

Check out some of these resources (click their links to explore further!):