Today, as a school we enjoyed our first whole school event for the year, our whole school Athletics Carnival. 2022 has continued to provide us with plenty of curve balls and challenges.
It is, however, pleasing to see the resilience and perseverance that has been shown by our staff and students in these testing times. Today was a great opportunity to celebrate just being together.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. — James 1:17
Whilst we are all created in the one image, we are not all the same. We all have different talents and God-given gifts, but they are all important and can be used for God’s kingdom.
I would like you to take a short minute and reflect upon something that you are good at. I wonder if you have a passion for cooking, or dancing, or are you a gifted public speaker? Do you enjoy riding motor bikes or constructing things? All of us have a talent or God-given gift that we are skilled in. Some people are excellent at sports, like football and basketball. For a small few, these God-given gifts can become more than just a hobby and eventuate into a career. These gifts can be used for the glory of God. Using your gifts for God can enable you to be part of the kingdom of God, helping others and ultimately advancing the world around you.
As your children get home today, I don’t think that the most important question for you to ask them is, “did you win?” I think the most important questions that we can be asking them are, “did you have a go and did you do your best?”. Not every child is going to have a gifting on the athletics field or on the running track and that is ok.
Something we encourage at Emmanuel is having a Growth Mindset, that is, believing that our most basic abilities can be improved through hard work and dedication. I am reminded of an occasion a few year ago, when I was teaching Physical Education myself. As a class, we were practising for the cross country. I had challenged the students that each week we would record their times with the idea that each week we would try and improve on our last week’s time. In the first run, a particular student completed the course in 38 minutes. In comparison, another student completed the course in 13 minutes. What I found interesting was the follow up conversations I was able to have with these two students. For the student with the longer time, their challenge was to cut a minute or so off the following week, the other student, the conversation with them was about whether or not they could maintain such a good time?
Fast forward four weeks. The student who was the faster runner, managed to maintain time solid times and almost cracked 12 minutes in the final run. However, what was also pleasing was that in their final run, the other student who had started off with a time of 38 minutes had broken 30 minutes in their final attempt! They were so happy, still a long way back from the student who finished in under 13 minutes, but it was fantastic to see that they had set a goal and with the mindset of them being able to improve, they did.
Each day we need to look for opportunities to serve God by using the gifts we have been given. Sometimes we may not even see how our talents are making a difference. It is important to allow yourself to be used by God because you just don’t know how you affect others.
Drew Roberts — Acting Principal