Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Message from Jamie Ross, Central Kindergarten Teacher

On Friday, January 28th, Mr. Koan shared his vision for our students:


Let them fail.
Let them learn.
Let them dream.
Let them soar.

Wow, three of those are easy, but letting them fail is very difficult. As parents, grandparents and teachers, we naturally do everything we can to gear children toward success. Oft times we may even go so far as to manipulate situations in the child’s favor. Let’s face it: it’s easier. It’s easier to excuse a child to use the bathroom during a time when you know that he’ll squawk and interrupt a guest speaker or pipe up and down that it isn’t fair that he wasn’t chosen to lead in some activity. Sure, things run more smoothly in the classroom, but is such avoidance truly nurturing for that particular child, and for that matter: the rest of the class? My answer is: no! This practice will only teach the children to avoid rather than to deal with matters at hand.

I had the most precious conversation with my son the other day. He stopped listening to me when he was in the fifth grade. Now he’s 25, married and living in Nebraska. He graduated from PC about seven years ago. I’ve been sitting on some things to speak with him about since he was a nonlistening teenager. I prayed and prayed but the time was still not right and I wasn’t feeling the love to speak the truth in.

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

I chose to use tough love. It was tough for me and tough for him, but I received the payoff in our telephone conversation.

We laid all our cards out on the table and had a real heart to heart talk.

He said: “Ma, I’m learning to listen to my wife. I can’t believe how much she is like you. She sets aside money from our paychecks for every little thing. The other day I wanted to buy something and she said that if I spent that money, we wouldn’t be able to pay a certain bill. I’m really sorry for being such a pain, Ma. When you made me get a job to pay for the extras at school, like my football uniform and gas for the car when I was dating, I just thought you were stingy. You said if she’s worth her salt, she’ll have more respect for you. I’m listening now, Ma!”

I don’t know if he’s practicing the first fruits of tithing, but I’m happy that he and Teresa are practicing good stewardship.

Wow! That conversation is so precious to me. It’s contained in the deepest recesses of my heart.

I thought back on how tough life was for my own mother in raising my brother and me. She made so many sacrifices that we didn’t know about. Other people took credit for the wonderful things that she did. I remember saying thank you, but not with full knowledge of how very difficult life was for her.

Next to Jesus, my mother is my best friend.

The Bible passage on our west PC wall rings so true:

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

So don’t lose heart!

Precious Jesus: still & always my refuge,

Help us to be an extension of you. Help us not to grow weary in our vocations. Help our students to understand that it is not their right but rather their privilege to attend PC. Thank you for the high, unfathomable cost that you paid for our redemption!

In Your holy name. Amen

2 comments:

  1. This hit the spot this morning....thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How incredible that after all these years, you were given the opportunity to have this conversation with Ron! It's God's timing....every minute, every day, every month, every year. Thanks for sharing!

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