Lifelong Learning

So, it has been a while since I have blogged. There are some people who blog every day. I have so much other writing to do, that blogging is not at the top of my list of things to accomplish on most days. For example, I am thinking as I write this that I need to write this week's script for the elementary chapel skit. That can be time consuming. I also have recommendations to write, summaries of meetings, birthday cards, proposals... There are things that have to get done and then there are things that ought to be done. This blog is in the latter category.

I was away last week for three days attending an ACSI conference for administrators. I wasn't super keen on going and it felt wrong to be driving north on Interstate 95 on Wednesday morning while staff and students were driving that same route south to GGCA. Fortunately, God had prepared some excellent speakers for those three days and I was given much to ponder in relation to our school and its future. I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Ellen Lowrie Black, a professor in the department of education at Liberty University. She will be coming to GGCA on February 18 to speak to the staff on our professional development day. She was just as others had described her - and more - and I am expecting God to pour out an amazing blessing upon us that day through her teaching ministry.

One of the thoughts that struck me right between the eyes at the conference is that Christian schools are not in existence to produce Christian scholars and Christian athletes, although those are desirable outcomes for our schools. Christian schools exist to produce Christians who will make an impact upon our world for God's kingdom, and the spiritual formation of Christ in our students is the ultimate goal. We are not here to work on what our students will become, but who they will be. Our students make become many things through the courses of their lives, but who they will be will always remain, no matter what schools they go to, what jobs they hold, who they marry, where they lives... It is so very, very important that our students discover who they are in Christ and walk in the newness of His life throughout their lives.

There is a lot of talk in education about teaching students to become lifelong learners, since the prediction is that today's graduates will hold an average of 14 jobs before their 38th birthdays, and that since many of those jobs do not even exist yet, being a lifelong learner will enable them to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for those jobs. More than that, we as Christian educators (and I include parents in this category) ought to be concerned about our children becoming lifelong learners of Christ, growing in Him as disciples, because the deep understandings of Christ are what will make us overcomers in life, job or no job.

This all goes back to what I wrote six years ago as an introduction to me and GGCA on the school website - "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?" Let's focus on what is best for our souls, seeking first the kingdom of God, and then watching God bless us with the "all these things" that He adds to our lives. Our children ought to have the best lives, and what's best for them is the life of Christ that filleth all in all - even our academic studies and athletic endeavors.