Steadfast
Each summer is filled with planning and preparations for the upcoming school year. One of the first tasks administration tackles is the development of our school-wide theme. Our annual school theme helps provide a framework in which chapels and classroom discussions can be based around. In addition, our theme helps establish a renewed spiritual climate and focus from year to year, provides teachers a springboard to engage students in spiritual conversations, and assists in one of our primary goals: to help students Connect Faith and Learning. In other words, school-wide themes are vital in helping a Christian School fulfill their mission on a yearly basis! Choosing a school theme is a long, but rewarding process.
This year’s school-wide theme is “Steadfast” and is based on Isaiah 26:3-4 (ESV) which says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”
Words such as “stressed”, “exhausted”, and “anxious” are becoming more commonplace in our fast-paced society. As Christians how can we find peace while living in a troubled, unpredictable world? Isaiah 26 provides a glimpse into how we can experience perfect peace even while living in a fallen, imperfect world. In this chapter Isaiah praises God for who He is, how He continually provides His people with all they need, and how those whose minds are fixed firmly on the nature and character of God will ultimately be able to find peace among the worldly chaos. A mind which is fixed on worldly circumstances and situations will not enjoy the peace that Isaiah speaks of. Isaiah urges his readers to place their trust in a God who is always faithful to His people. Only then will we have the perfect peace Isaiah speaks of.
Our theme “Steadfast” flows from the idea that despite circumstances and situations that may at times seem out of control, our God remains firm, unshakeable, and ultimately, steadfast. Perfect peace doesn’t come from the absence of conflict, stress, exhaustion, or anxiety in our lives but rather in the knowledge that we are cared for, loved, and cherished by a God who was willing to lay down the life of his own Son for our salvation. We are called to fix our minds on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Our hope is that this theme both spurs our students and faculty to fix their minds daily on God and to place their trust in Him to receive peace that only comes through an assurance of who God is and what He has accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection. That’s the only way true peace can be found!