While I know the importance of family time together and placing boundaries on activities, we really enjoyed this past weekend. The reason: my family does not feel the need to separate school from our personal lives. On the contrary, school is very personal for us and where we live out a large part of our lives. TCS, its faculty, and its families are increasingly becoming our friends, our support, and our joy.
When we enrolled our two girls in Trinity last year, we didn’t quite realize how much our family would be blessed by the school. First, we came to quickly value the presence of other adults in the lives of our children--loving authorities who know them, instruct them, correct them, and care for them. Second, our children gained new friends and many new experiences, in addition to being challenged to learn and study. The combination of these new adult role models, classmates, and families have truly added to our children’s joy, discipline, motivation, respect for authority, and consideration of others.
It reminds me as a parent that raising children is a tremendous responsibility, one in which we need help. I remember when my wife and I were new parents among other young families, and many of us were slow to ask for help. Yet we were embarking on the most complicated task of our lives--training young souls into adulthood. So, where is it safe to ask for help? Where do parents find other adults to model grace and speak truth into the lives of our children?
My hope is that you first find that place in your church. In fact, helping parents is what many congregations pledge to do when they dedicate or baptize a baby, a clear recognition of the parents’ need for God’s help and each other’s. But, in addition to the church, school is a place we gather five days a week (and four times over the weekend!) And, I’m thrilled to be part of a school that can also help parents, not just with the children’s academic achievement, but also with their hearts. I’ve seen Trinity teachers regard each child as made in the image God and someone to be known and loved. My family has personally benefited from this. We need this.
Lord, help TCS to be a place where parents feel the freedom to ask for help, where they can learn from and lean on each other, and where we trust You to accomplish what we cannot.
In Christ,
Stephen Sprague
Headmaster
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16