Anyone remotely familiar with schools knows that we are closing out the testing season. For the past month or more we have had some sort of testing going on. I’m talking major, big group tests and that’s not including the regular classroom tests and quizzes. We’ve had progressive assessment tests, the dreaded TCAP’s, and most recently semester finals. It seemed that every time we turned around there was another test and for the past four to six weeks, there was! Sadly, sometimes the kids get so worn out testing that they pass the point of caring which is one of many reasons we “celebrate” the TCAP’s with pep rallies, incentive rewards, and other hoopla.
Our lives can be seen in much the same way. Every day we face some sort of test but they’re not all from the Lord. Sure, He puts some challenges in our way to see how we handle them and from where we draw our strength. However, there is another “tester” out there who is constantly throwing rocks in our path –or at our heads! – to trip us up. Satan would like nothing better than to make our way difficult so we would get tired and frustrated and want to give up. Just like our students, we sometimes give out and think, “What’s the use?” Paul reminded the Galatians, and us, to “not grow weary in doing good.” Every challenge, every hardship, every little bump in the road is a test to see what we’re “made of.” Hopefully, prayerfully, we will respond in the power and grace and love of Christ. Being children of God, we should respond as a child of God. I pray we pass each and every test, no matter how big or how small, and hear the blessing, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
love ya, Bret.
