Today's Devotional
May 28, 2009
Subject: More Important Than A School Exam
James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Many educators and teachers probably don't agree with me on this, but I think character development is more important than passing any written exam in school. Here is what I'm talking about.
As our school anxiously awaited the TAKS (standardized tests for the state of TEXAS) results last week, one of my cadets, a senior, talked to me about how happy he was going to be and how crazy he would act if he found out that he passed all four subject areas. I had a discussion with him about the line out of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" where it said "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat both the same." I explained that maturity would be for him to accept the results however they went and move on accordingly. He rejected my words by saying, "Colonel I don't care about all that. I'm going to act a fool if I pass them all." I immediately told him, "I pray that you will fail." The next day before the results were released he came to me talking about how my words from the day prior kept echoing in his head all night. Later that day he received the results and sure enough, he had failed one of the four areas meaning that he would not be able to graduate with his senior class. The next time I talked to him I said, "now this is the test that you need to pass."
School tests are fine and they show an ability to learn material that has been taught and that is good and right, but the test and trials of life are the ones that we need to prepare for and pass and sometimes, like the story above, the tests of life are brought on by school tests.
Today check out the diplomas and degrees that you have hanging on the wall or lying in the closets in your home. Do any of them remind you that you passed a test of life? Life tests are more important than a school exam and you will receive grades for them that will have an eternal impact. While I'm not as concerned about the school tests, I pray that we all pass the life tests that God brings.
Carlen
