The Letter to
Every Christian Educator
in Every Christian School
from Every Christian Parent
of Every Christian Student,
EVER.
To You.
Thank you for your commitment to educating my child, not just equipping her for her future career but helping her to set her eyes on things above.
I pray that you will equip her well. If you are a science teacher, teach her science in the best way you can...with Christ’s help. Recognising that she is not just my daughter, but she is a daughter of the Most High King.
If you are a junior school teacher teach her the foundations of literacy and numeracy well, helping her to create a curiosity for God’s creation. And do it the best that you can, with Christ’s help. Recognising that she is not just my daughter, but a daughter of the Most High King.
But don’t just equip her head. Help her appreciate the promises that are set out in the Scriptures for her. Help her to understand that the Creator of the Universe desires to have a relationship with her. Help her to know that even when things are not going as she would hope in life that Jesus is still King.
When she leaves your school be certain that she knows her value, her identity, her purpose and that, ultimately if she trusts God and places her calling in His hands that she can do immeasurably more than she could ever dream or imagine.
But please don’t preach at her.
Don’t start science with an undirected dissertation of the scriptures.
Rather help her discover God’s incredible creation and remind her that as Creator, God cares so much more for her than He does for the birds of the air and the flowers in the field.
As a Christian Educator help her to value and love prayer.
Don’t teach her that prayer is a religious activity that happens at certain times of the day with set prayers. Do more than just praying at the beginning of the day, lunchtime and the end of the day. Expose her to more than just students praying, ‘thank you for today, pray that nobody gets hurt, amen’.
Rather, teach her to love prayer and see it as an ongoing conversation with her Creator and the lover of her soul...not just the mindless regurgitation of a cosmic wish list. Please model meaningful and authentic prayer to her, a conversation of respect between her and the sustainer of Life.
And help her to love the Scriptures.
Don’t relegate Scripture memorisation to a thoughtless homework task. The memorising patterns of words from the Bible that will be assessed on Friday and replaced with another pattern of words on Monday. Something that is punishable but writing out over and over and over if she has pattern wrong on Friday.
Rather, make Scripture a fundamental part of her classroom. Let it be revisited and unpacked with such frequency that it would be almost impossible for her to not hide His Word in her heart. Please do not punish her when she gets it wrong, rather reflect how you could explore different approaches in the class to assure such a strong programme that it is harder for her to fail than it is to succeed.
And please, present the Scriptures to her in such a way that she knows that His Word is relevant to her life now and for her future. Through your passion for His Word help her to develop an insatiable curiosity for the Scripture.
Help her to love worship.
Don’t make her numb to worship by putting her in a room where all the students gather together and powerful words about her Creator and what He has done for her go in her eyes and out her mouth without touching anything on the way through.
Rather take time and have her consider the rich truths that the artist has brought to life through song. Promote the stickiness of those words so that they penetrate her mind and saturate her heart.
Please don’t be offended but know that just because you are a Christian teacher, it does not mean that my daughter will experience Christian Education in your classroom.
Rather the quality of the Christian Education that she experiences in your classroom will be proportional to the intentionality that you put into both the subtle and overt experiences she has of Christ, the Scriptures and in her curriculum and how you as the teacher model what it is to live sold out for Him.
I pray that your love for her as a Christian Educator will not be limited by how much you like her. She is different by design and I love her deeply.
So thank you. Thank you for the way that you will join us in modelling how to be a Christian in this broken world. That you will not just tell her, but show her the Fruit of the Spirit in action and that through who you are, she will understand what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with her Maker.
Praying God’s richest blessings for you,
Parents of ‘You Know Who’.