The Best Education
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Do you remember sending your kids off to the first day of school? Some parents sending their children off for the first time may have been teary eyed as they reflected on how fast their children had grown up. Other parents may have had that sense of relief with the start of another year and happy to see their children moving to the next thing in life.
This week most of our Washington Conference schools started the first day of the school year! Teachers received their students well-prepared for the coming school year, carefully preparing their classrooms for their new group of students. Many students, while of course not saying it, were actually excited to be back at school with new clothes and backpacks filled with carefully selected school supplies.
Education is wonderful development for our minds helping us to grow as individuals. Adventist Christian education however is more than just our wonderful school system. It begins in our homes as we teach our children to read and expand their minds, take responsibility for their actions, share Jesus with them through family worships, and teach them how to be involved in our communities. Christian education takes place in our churches through Sabbath Schools, Pathfinder and Adventurer clubs and involvement in church. We model it ourselves by being continual learners no matter what age we are.
The very educated leaders in the early church times were trying to keep the apostles from preaching about Jesus. They were trying to suppress the growth of the early Christian church. However, those same educated church leaders realized something about the apostles who did not have a formal education like they did.
In Acts 4:13 it says,
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
Educated people of that day recognized that the early church leaders were doing all that they were doing because they had been with Jesus. That is the best education and the best compliment that someone can receive. To be with Jesus and to be led by his Spirit to do great things.
May each of us be so filled with Jesus, that no matter what degrees we have or may not have, people will know that we have been with Jesus.