By: ANSley BONAVENTURE, MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

The start of the school year certainly brings a host of feelings: excitement, nervousness, caution, enthusiasm, apprehension, and hopefully even wonder! In the midst of all of these feelings, and as we walk through these first weeks, we (as parents and students!) realize that some things feel simple and known and other things quickly feel difficult and hard. We love the simple and the known: a fresh routine, daily interactions with friends, living books to read, teachers who support and love our students, and fun, new subjects to explore. The known and the expected feel, well, good!

It's the unknown and the new that often stir up worry - a new place, a different rhythm, a new schedule, a grade with more assignments than we feel we have time to juggle. These things feel, well, hard! And, because we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we often want to hide from the hard, wanting a quick fix or a simple out.

Doing HARD THINGS

The good news? God knows us well! He loves us and is intimately acquainted with our fears and with all the things that feel so hard. He puts us in community - in covenant community - with others who may be walking through the same hard things or may have walked through them before us. He gives us each other. And, more than that, He gives us His Spirit. Our God is not surprised that we have hard things to walk through, and He gives us fellowship to walk in as we walk through these things.

And, the hard, the new, the difficult, and the uncomfortable? Simply put, God doesn’t want us to walk around them. He ordains us to walk in them. Shortcuts never create excellence or character or perseverance. Likewise, our children cannot skip over the hard - the long times of studying as we get used to new classes, the friendships that have hit a bump in the road, the mornings of forgetting lunches or P.E. clothes, and the early alarms and getting out the door. The struggles are real, and the end of our carefree summer days can often feel abrupt. Yet, we know from His Word that God has ordained order, rhythms, seasons, ends, and beginnings for our good. And, with the start of something new, there is usually “hard” as we find our footing.

Let Us Follow Jesus’ Lead

Finally, and maybe most important of all, let us remember that God knows “hard” more than any of us. He gave up His son for us. And, Jesus knows “hard.” The cross was ever before Him, but remember what He did: “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39)

Jesus asked God to take away the hard! He showed us that it is okay, and maybe it is even more than okay … maybe it is holy and good to ask God to take our hard. Yet, He also acknowledged that may not be His Father’s plan. His plan was for Jesus to walk right into the hardest thing of all and, in doing so, to conquer it. Jesus stayed in the hard. He bore the hard. He conquered the hard.

Let us follow Jesus’ lead. Let us cry out to the Lord when things are hard or new or uncomfortable. Let us listen and hear from our Father.

And, in this covenant community, let us cheer one another on as we are often called to walk right in the midst of the things that He has graciously called us to - as parents, as students, and as the family of Christ.