Ken Smitherman, President, Association of Christian Schools International (retired 2009)
What a blessing are the words of Jesus, recorded in what we fondly call the Sermon on the Mount. Delivering those words some two millennia ago, Jesus spoke to a group of followers on a hillside near the Sea of Galilee. This particular part of His message seems to loom large in these days: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19–20, NIV).
As we observe the unbelievable upheaval in the world of economics and financial investment, you can rest assured in the soundness of the investment you are making in your children’s Christian schooling. An education firmly rooted in Christ-centered principles and God’s Word is an investment in which thieves and all the elements of deterioration will not prevail.
My intention is not to describe your Christian school as the silver bullet—some sort of magical place. Rather, it is to describe a place committed to engaging in the spiritual formation of young lives as it focuses simultaneously on the intellectual, social, and physical development of its students. You have chosen well, and I want to encourage you to participate equally with your school at this crucial time of your children’s nurture and development.
This past summer, we had the privilege of welcoming houseguests from the East Coast to spend a couple of days with us on their journey west for a family get-together. Their vacation was a fly-and-drive holiday that included camping and in general a delightful time for a family of four, which included a preschooler and a primary-grade student. The mother was a graduate from the Christian school I had administered out west, and the father a graduate of a Christian school back east. Wisely, they had gone beyond simply picking up some travel games for their kids at the local toy store. Instead, the parents had taken the time to make attractively designed album-journals that included a map showing where they planned to be every day. For the album-journal, they carefully divided each of their vacation days into a series of daily activities: information about where they would be, notes about some of the things to look forward to, and a place to answer age-appropriate questions about what they were actually seeing and doing. And then in a wonderfully presented manner, each day included a small portion of Scripture accompanied by questions for the children to ponder and respond to very simply in a few words.
As I sat with these little guys one morning after breakfast and watched them do the daily activity, I was deeply moved not only by the thoughtfulness of their responses to both the sights and the activities they were enjoying but also by the level of thoughtfulness they gave to the day’s Scripture.
Here was a living example of parents engaged in spending high-quality time on a family vacation and, at the same time, helping their children see the wholeness of kingdom life—life that embraces the gospel—life that so weaves the spiritual with what some would describe as the secular to create a whole new something. The result was that the children received witness to the wonder of God’s creation, experienced the thrill of enjoying it, and developed a growing and real understanding of God’s Word. This family was doing genuine spiritual formation as a vital, natural aspect of their daily living.
That simple notion is the unique distinctive of Christian schooling: developing that “whole new something” and not merely pasting some kind of spiritual overlay on top of “regular life,” but nurturing the spiritual aspect of life so that it becomes life itself—kingdom living. As a family engaged in Christian schooling, you are making a financial commitment to investing in a “whole new something:” in essence, you are storing up treasures in heaven.
Storing Up Treasures in Heaven 40.3