August 20, 2018 – Back to School!

Wow! How time flies! To think the last time I left you with some little tidbits, it was May, just before I closed down the Corner for the summer. Well, I’m back and it’s time to get things rolling for the fall. I hope and pray you have had a great summer. The new school year is here and that is where I would like to start off; us getting back into the fall and beginning of the school year.

Encouragement
As defined by our dictionary, encouragement is “the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.” I love those three words you see here: support, confidence, and hope. As our children return to school, let us be encouraging in order to put them in the right frame of mind of wanting to do their best in school.

School can be challenging for some. I know, I was one of them. It was not that I did not like school – it’s just I had some learning challenges that made school difficult for me, and therefore I had to work way harder than others just to keep up. It was not until I got to college that we discovered what those challenges were and set up some tools to help me succeed. Wow! If I had known of them back then!

I say this to encourage you parents to take a second look at your children and listen when they are saying they don’t like school. There may be some other things going on, such as learning challenges (dyslexia, ADD or ADHD, learning differences/disabilities, bullying). Do all you can to get your children the tools needed to help them be successful. They need you in their corner.

I’d like to leave you with this take-away – something my grandfather used to say to me as I left for school sometimes. He knew how important an education was and he only had the opportunity to go through the 6th grade. He said:
“That teacher there at the front of the room has something that belongs to YOU, and it is YOUR job to go and get it.”

So, as this new school year starts, let’s encourage our children to get on their jobs and go and get it.

May it be a blessed, safe and wonderful school year for all.

Pastor Freddie Orr