Using Habits to Steady Our Souls

habits are what steady us as one season morphs into the next.

By: Ansley Bonaventure, Middle School Principal

We are experiencing the first few hints of spring - the daffodils blooming, the grass gaining its rich, deep green, the birds whistling, the afternoon rain showers, and oh, the pollen … as we encounter these things more and more, we know that spring is right around the corner. And, with this change in seasons, we are reminded of the spiritual truth that undergirds these changes - changes are certain and God purposes them in our lives at just the right and best time.

A Season for Everything

As children of the King living in a fallen world, we live with tension: we love the change that seasons, of both nature and of life, bring. And yet, we also push against change and the discomfort that is inevitable with some seasons and some changes that He brings to us. We are thankful that a particularly hard season will not last forever, and we want change. But then when the change is not one we would choose, we ache. 

How do we steady our souls when the changes feel bigger than our capacity to endure them or when the seasons are dark or uncertain? How do we remain calm when our child seems to change hourly, right in front of our eyes? How do we have joy when our aging parents change and require a different level of love and empathy? How do we have sound thoughts when the worry of a new grade, new technology, or even a new curriculum seems to be consuming, rather than just occupying, our thoughts?

Using Habits to Steady Our Souls

I would suggest that habits are what steady us during the changes we experience as one season morphs into the next.

Habits provide stability. Of course, God is our ultimate stability. Psalms 18:2 reminds us, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” But habits are practical ways to focus our thoughts and our emotions on our Rock and to free ourselves from the winds that tend to blow us from one worry to another.

Our teachers invest many, many hours cultivating habits in the hearts, minds, and bodies of our students. While, together with these teachers, we plant, water, and fertilize habits deep in their hearts in the early years, the middle grades are often where students begin to reap the rhythms of these habits and where they can see that these habits are truly life-giving.

Think about the benefits of a child learning the habits of attention, thinking, remembering, neatness and order, truthfulness, responsibility, courtesy, self-control, obedience, and fortitude. As children grow and mature into young adults, the stakes also grow. The circumstances needing attention, responsibility, self-control, etc. grow, as do our children.  

It is such a gift for our children to be a part of a school where teachers create an academic atmosphere that includes practical habits that provide students a way to weather the seasons they will encounter with a variety of tools (habits) to stay steady and to maintain a mind that is clear to seek God’s heart in the midst of change and uncertainty.

How are we, as parents, nurturing these habits at home? What do these habits look like in a first grader and how can they change as a child ages? 

Let us continue these conversations and champion one another, as parents, as we encourage one another through all the seasons of life, especially as we weather the seasons together in this covenant community.