Insights
Surrendering Our Feelings To God
“Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith.” ~Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
The book of Psalms often speaks of raw emotions and the expression of them in metaphor. There are cries out to God in pain, repentance, joy, and praise. The psalmist expresses a range of emotions, but at the same time describes God as steadfast and unmoving. The Psalms contrast emotions to God’s nature. Emotions are a way we are designed. We are emotional and we do have feelings, but it is with faith we assured the steadfastness of God and His love. Our emotions should not hide the nature of God from us.
In learning to grow as a disciple there is a surrender of our entire beings to God including how we feel. A way we can help children demonstrate this is by asking them to hold out their hands with their palms up. In this exercise, I ask students to put all their feelings in their palms. “Let's put worry, fear, and anxiety in our palms.” Then I ask them to close their hands and squeeze. “Squeeze tight!” Then let them open their hands and give their emotions to God. Often there is a child that pitches his emotions better than Lance McCullers Jr! This exercise helps visualize a release, a surrender, from strong emotions that can overwhelm a child.
We as adults also have to surrender to the Lord’s will over our feelings. Often we think of surrendering our finances, our desires, our decisions, but often we forget to submit our feelings. Eugene Peterson describes this as an act of obedience in faith. Even when we don’t feel God, we obey. We have faith that He is there and with us. This means that our feelings don’t limit God’s promise. Our feelings don’t override our obedience. And even when we don’t feel like worship, we obey. Even if we don’t want to love our enemies, we obey. It is a sweet surrender to our feelings, replaced with a faith that God is who He says He is. Our feelings change, but God is faithful, steadfast, everlasting….unchanging.
Leah Rabb
Elementary Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Family Is The "Secret Sauce"
It was an incredible honor to travel this past week to Washington D.C. and accept the 2021 Blue Ribbon School Award on behalf of Logos Prep. In addition to much congratulations and celebration, I was struck by the undercurrent of concern for our nation’s schools and students. While I recognize that we are not exempt from the challenges being faced in education, I also know that we have opportunities many do not. You as parents have opportunities that many parents cannot or choose not to take. Together, we are able to partner to provide students with a future changing education.
Keynote speaker Deputy Secretary of Education Cynthia Marten said, “Educators shape the future every single day.” While I fully agree with this statement, I also see that parents are shaping the future, one precious child at a time.
In his talk on Mindful Resilience and Post Traumatic Growth, Dr. Christopher Willard reminded the educators that the number one thing that predicts positive outcomes for kids is having one caring, consistent, compassionate adult in their lives. Educators across the nation are trying to fill this gap for students whose parents are not serving in this way. While I do believe that all educators should strive to be these things for their students, I am thankful that the students of Logos Prep have caring, consistent, and compassionate adults in their homes. This has been called the “secret sauce” of the school's success.
In one of the sessions I attended at the NBRS conference, I learned the staggering statistic that one in three young people grow up without a mentoring relationship. This helps frame the conversations that were also taking place about mental health and instability. Too many of our nation’s children are raising themselves and while I was spending time with some of the nation’s best educators, few understood the clear truth. Schools cannot solve the problem. The family must rise up and serve the critical role it was designed by God to play.
The second predictive factor of positive outcomes for kids is feeling like part of a community. We value community at Logos Prep and strive for every student to feel a part. Nevertheless, do not underestimate the power of the community of your home. Family is every child’s first and most important small group.
University-Model School, and likewise Logos Prep, were formed to support families by providing an excellent academic opportunity in partnership with parents. If you have never, or haven’t recently, read Dr. John Turner’s book Character Driven College Preparation, please come by the office and purchase a copy. Spend some time reminding yourself why you do what you do for your children and as a parent at a UM school. I do recommend the updated version of the book which is not available on Amazon.
In her talk, Secretary Marten said that we are right now in a moment of inflection in our nation’s history. She claimed that education was at the heart of every discussion. Though I fully believe in the role of educators in shaping our culture, I would counter that family must be at the heart of every discussion in order for lasting change to occur.
Thank you for partnering with us in providing your children a Blue Ribbon worthy education. We count it a great privilege to play a role in the lives of your students.
In celebration of our Blue Ribbon Award, Blue Bell Ice Cream will provide an ice cream treat on campus today and tomorrow.
Tammy McIlvoy
Head of School
Logos Preparatory Academy
Emotions and Discipleship
3 John 1: 4
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
The emotion in this verse is joy and it is how we feel when we get a good report about our children walking in truth! What is our emotion while we are training them to walk in truth, to be a disciple? Is it still joy? Or maybe frustration, anger, fear, guilt? Emotions are a good and gracious gift to everyone created in the image of God. We just need to deal with them and respond to them in a healthy, biblical way that honors God and helps us to disciple well.
I don’t believe God intended for the “feelings of the day” to guide us as we disciple. He wants that job. God wants to be our guide. Our feelings should not be what drives our decisions, but rather an indicator of what’s going on inside us. We must check ourselves as parents consistently so that when we engage with our children on the path of discipleship we can be the “steady” to their occasional “crazy”. I know that is easier said than done, but it is important!
The path to discipleship is just that, a path, not a destination. Discipleship is not a one time act. If it were, we could all manage to suck it up and keep our emotions in check for that one moment and all would be good. But that is not how parenting works.
When our children are small, there are countless “discipleship opportunities'' every day cleverly disguised as “impossible behaviors” where we correct poor behavior, encourage right behavior, and hug it out at the end. As our children get older, the discipleship opportunities are all there but our ability to stay calm as we correct, encourage and love becomes harder to stay the course and finish that cycle. They can now talk back and argue their side of their poor behavior. This brings emotion in a whole new dynamic and it can become an argument that, you as the parent, feel you must win at any emotional cost.
You won’t win an argument by telling someone they are ridiculous and here are the 50 logical reasons why. We aren’t as logical as we think we are. 90% of our choices are emotionally driven. We win hearts by being in a relationship and showing compassion to one another. You don’t win arguments, you win people’s affection.
Be the parent, stay the course, hold them accountable, but do it all with the emotion of love, unconditional love. It is the emotion most prevalent in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Yes, He disciplines us and chastens us but it is all done with love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”. 1 John 4:11
Becky Ross
Primary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
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