NPC: A Place to Thrive

1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 

Every April I am thankful that the good Lord gave me absolutely no mathematical skills whatsoever.  When I review the tax forms with my husband and our accountant, I can hardly keep my eyes from spinning as I look over the lengthy instructions, the unending lines to be filled in, and the nerve-wracking instructional booklet that is supposed to make the whole process understandable.

For some reason this kind of work is something that sets my heart to racing and my mind to fretting.  I will do almost anything to avoid assembly instructions, technical diagrams, or Christmas-morning-toy-manufacturing.   Thank you, Lord, for giving me a very resourceful husband that can help me with all of these tasks.

And thank you, Lord, for giving each of us gifts and talents to “serve others.”  The body of Christ is an intricate system of stewards finding ways that their talents can give others help…hope…and ultimately bring life to a desperate need.  We see this in our churches when we call upon each other to lead and serve in the areas most natural for them.  I am also grateful to be at NorthPointe Christian School where teachers are asked to use their specific gifts to bless others.

While I am thankful that teaching at NPC has not called for me to be a wiz at complicated forms, I am even more thankful to be participating in the amazing web of staff that is uniquely called by their “gifts…to serve others.”  Each administrator, staff member, and teacher has been empowered by the Lord to rise to the unique challenge of guiding students in their content area and more importantly…their faith.

This means that while I would struggle greatly to impart high school level knowledge on the anatomy of a frog to freshmen, I love nothing more than helping them understand the command form of verbs that is necessary to worship in Spanish.  The Lord gifts us specifically, and calls us uniquely.

I am so thankful to not only be a staff member at an academic institution that has staffed its school with the best and brightest, but I am also grateful to send my children to that same school.  I sleep so deeply at night knowing that my children spend the majority of their weekly hours with someone that not only knows their field well, but knows my Lord too.  When they are planning my children’s week, they are making time to write the Word of the Lord on their hearts.  While they are thinking of literacy, math, and science skills, they are also taking steps to develop my children’s honesty and integrity.

3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

As Christians we are entering into a unique time in history.  Just like Esther was, we are called “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  Our country has long drawn on a Christian foundation of faith for making decisions for our people, though now we are seeing a shift in the culture that causes me as a parent to re-evaluate my children’s influences.  While Christ has not given us a spirit of fear, it is most definitely our responsibility to hold fast to the Word of our Lord as the truth that guides our choices.

At NorthPointe I am able to educate students using the whole truth of the Bible as the foundation for our learning, and this gives me the greatest freedom!  Teaching in the public school meant that I could teach students, encourage students, advise students, but I was not allowed to share life-breathing truth with students.

At NPC, we, as a staff, are hungry to train the next generation of Christians to change the world.

So, rest easy, faith family.  Rest easy, praying parents.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ, holding firm to truth in a changing tide.  We are spending our days praying and preparing, so that your students are well-equipped for the days ahead.