Proverbs 9:9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.
My kids aren’t big fans of the 8:00 – 3:00 school day routine. (It’s boring, they say.) And it perplexes them that they must go to school for nine months of the year while summer break lasts only three months. In their minds, to be fair, school should be six months of the year and break should fill the other six.
They wouldn’t say that they think learning is fun, but my oldest son found an appreciation for the hard work of studying last year. School has always come easy to him. He can spell pretty much every word in the English language (it’s not uncommon for his dad to ask him how to spell something), and he took Algebra in seventh grade.
That Algebra class introduced him to the world of studying.
Never having studied a day in his life, he found himself in a class where everything didn’t just fall into place for him. He had to learn to study. The weekend before semester tests, he and his dad studied for 6 hours together. (Whew! My brain hurt just watching them.)
But you know what? He learned the material and got an A on the test.
I hope that as he grows, he will not just slide by on his natural abilities, but that he will appreciate what studying can do. And may he realize that though he is a smart kid according to the school’s standards, he can still add to his learning if he puts forth effort.
Prayer
Lord, I pray that my kids will understand the value of listening to instruction and learning new and sometimes difficult things. And as they study and learn the things they need to in school, I pray they will find that they can grow in wisdom by studying your word as well. Amen.
Hi Kim. I was just sitting here on a Saturday morning, thinking about the conversation I just had with my husband about our 7th grade son. I’ll bet it wasn’t even 10 minutes between asking God for wisdom on how to be a mother to our tween boy and seeing your article on TCW. As I read, I’m in awe of how God has used your words to speak to me. He’s our oldest and the only boy. You really blessed me today. Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. It really made my day. Those boys are hard to figure out, but they are awesome!