Back to School!

Summer's over and a new school year has begun.  All of Columbia is back on a school schedule which requires families to work together to get to school and get to work.  Students are feeling the emotions of getting back on track at school.  Some are feeling excited; others are struggling with anxiety.  After a long summer, many students are ready to get back to a schedule and begin growing, learning new things and preparing for what's next in life.

At Heritage, we have set our spiritual theme for the year as GRIT.  Our theme verse is Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  Through out the year, we will be looking for ways to integrate true grit into the hearts and minds of our students.  Now, GRIT is not a biblical word, but there are many words in the Bible which could be mistaken for GRIT.  Words like "perseverance", "long-suffering", or faith, hope, and love.

Hebrews chapter 11, for instance, is dedicated to heroes of faith who kept believing and didn't give up even when they faced great adversity in life.  The Old Testament is full of such heroes fo faith.  Abraham, Joseph, and Ruth are three such heroes.

Abraham believed the promise of God even though he and Sarah were childless (Genesis 15:6).  Jospeh never gave up hope in the dreams which God had given even though he faced adversity after adversity.  In the end, he still cringed to God's goodness (Genesis 50:20).  Ruth became the hero of Elimelech and Naomi's life story with loyalty and love.  Even though she was a Moabite woman, God worked through her loyalty and love to redeem a family and provide a redeemer for the whole world (Ruth 4:22).  These heroes have been given to us in scripture to serve as examples for us today.

This school year, we are striving to help our students become successful in life by instilling in them spiritual qualities such as faith, hope, and love.  Christian author John Ortberg has said of grit, "Over time, grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness."

Let's work together to encourage our students to choose faith, hope, and love.  Together, we can grow GRIT in our lives and the lives of our students as well.



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