School Days, School Days

It’s August and time to get back to readin’, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmatic. New clothes, new pencils, books and backpacks; we wouldn’t dream of not sending our children off to get educated in the 3 R’s. Why those are downright important things that will carry our children into the future where their children will learn that what they are currently learning is no longer true. But, we will still insist that they devote great time and energy to temporary truth. What about eternal truth?

The Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, these are truths that have not changed and will not change forever. We say to our children, “Keep your grades up or you can’t play sports or participate in other extracurricular activities.” This statement compels them to keep their minds toiling away at the grindstone of learning temporary truth, both temporary in the sense that it is always changing and in the sense that it does not carry over into heavenly places. But in a dramatic change of attitude from not too many years past, a time when spiritual truth and biblical knowledge were highly valued, we say to those same children that if they succeed in learning that which will not last, that they can skip out each week on learning that which will last.

We argue that they are only young once and that they should have all the opportunities to explore their talents in many areas, even if exploring them keeps them from Sunday school, church, confirmation, and faithfulness to the teaching of the Word thereafter. What has happened to the spiritual understanding of our adult population? Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” So, train up a child to consider what he wants to do as being more important than what God wants him to do, and that attitude will carry him or her through life.

Now it’s time for training in the real 3 R’s. Right Truth, Right Knowledge, Right Goals. God’s word is eternal truth. Jesus said, “Thy Word is Truth” (Jn. 17:27) Knowing God’s word is right knowledge “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Prov. 1:7) Right goals are to live a life for Christ, not self. “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Our choice is the 3 R’s, temporary or eternal. Choose like Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15)  

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen