Insights

Coach Murff, during our Senior Challenge festivities Monday night, said about a particular senior, “You are who you are because of the people standing to your left, and to your right.” He was referring to the student’s parents, and that single statement applies to every student in our school and sums up our parent philosophy pretty powerfully.

Deuteronomy 6 instructs: “4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.“ The Shema, the first two verses, are vitally important to our faith. But the next two verses give us some hints as to how we execute this vision.

The role we play as parents in our children’s faith development cannot be overstated. I find myself laughing like my dad and making my mom’s recipes. I see my kids adopt my cadence of speaking or pick up on things that I like, and now they like them, too. All of that is good! But I also find myself recalling life lessons from my dad or striving to develop the strong, consistent faith of my mom. I see my kids worship the same way I do and have the same questions I had when I was their age. As Mrs. McIlvoy said last week, “Parents have the most important role in the process of biblical discipleship. From the head, to the heart and habits, the parent is the most influential person in a student’s life; this reality is the cornerstone of our educational philosophy. While parents may partner with others in their child’s training, ultimately they are accountable to God for the whole of that training.”

I say this both to stress the importance of the work you do, but also to encourage you! Every year we have Senior Challenge, and every year I’m blown away at how amazing these kids are. That is a direct result of the blood (hopefully figurative), sweat (probably literal), and tears (definitely literal) you’ve poured into your students as they learn what it’s like to be human and to be made in the image of God. You have a vital role to play in the spiritual development of your children, and–to borrow the imagery from Deuteronomy–we are honored to walk alongside you on that path!

Dr. Jason Henderson
Secondary Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy