“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Life-Long Learners
by
Jane VanOsdol
As a child, I remember the days toward the end of the summer were filled with activity and excitement. I always knew the summer would soon be drawing to an end when my mom would announce that it was time for “back to school shopping.” Back to school shopping meant a trip to Robertson’s Department Store (save a fourth, save a third, save a half in every department on every floor–I still remember their advertising song for remnant days!) in South Bend, Indiana. This was a favored activity in my life. Robertson’s was an old-fashioned department store about six stories high. My favorite floor was the girl’s department where we would head to pick out our clothes for the upcoming school year.
This was a bargaining feat, because with four girls my parents had several of us to clothe. I always had too many selections and had the difficult task of narrowing my choices down. After we purchased the clothes, we had the additional yearly delight of heading to the tea room for lunch, where we each got to pick out something yummy to eat. Lunching in the tea room let me pretend for awhile that I was quite cosmopolitan–a far cry from the small-town Michigan girl I was.
We also needed to make sure we had our school supplies, book bags (there weren’t back packs in the 60s and 70s) and lunch boxes ready to go. After accumulating all of these things, I can remember being so excited that I could barely sleep the night before school started. Off I went the next morning, ready to see my friends and crack open my new books.
As we prepare to start the 2009-2010 school year, I think about the excitement with which I approached my learning as a child. I still love to learn new things at this stage of my life. I have taken several online classes and studied subjects on my own. Part of that love of learning extends to the Bible. Even though the Bible was written a long time ago, it is still just as applicable to life today as it was when it was written. Just as 2 + 2 will always =4, so, too, will the words of the Bible always = truth.
As we send our children back to school this year, let’s use this time to also send ourselves back to school and continue our education in God’s Word.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for the education that we are so blessed to have. We pray for our students, teachers and administration–for your protection over them and your blessing upon them. We pray that Your truth will be preached this year in our schools, homes and churches. And we ask that we will never tire of being Your students. Amen.
Copyright 2009 Jane VanOsdol All Rights Reserved
Jane, I loved this post, especially your description of buying the school clothes – and having to narrow down the choices to a few (don’t we women STILL hate to do that?) 🙂 I too still love learning. Thanks for the reminder to be life-long students of Christ, at His knee like Mary was. What online classes have you taken this year? How cool!