Hey guys,
So, for those of you who have grown up in the church, you KNOW that there is a thankfulness song, and you KNOW you know the words. I woke up this morning to hear my 8 year old brother singing from the other room, "I thank God for this day, for the sun in the sky, for my Mom and my Dad, for my piece of apple pie. For our home on the ground, for His love that's all around, that's why I say thanks everyday! Because a thankful heart is a happy heart, I thank God for what I have and that's an easy way to start. For the love that He shares, 'cause he listens to our prayers, that's why I say thanks everyday!" What a way to wake up, right? It just got me thinking, why should we need a specific reason to be happy each day? Why does something HAVE to happen to make us grateful? Shouldn't we WAKE UP grateful? Don't we realize that we as humans are indeed God's chosen people, and we should be grateful for that? As corny as this song is, and as annoying as it may be to someone who has heard it probably A MILLION times, it teaches kids, and reminds teens and adults. Be thankful, just because! Be thankful to have God, and to have a family. After all, what else is going to matter? Are the number of cars we have going to effect our entering to heaven? How about the clothes we wear? Or the grades we make in school? Or whether or not we're going to go to college? All of these things are relative to the society we live in, it won't matter when our days on Earth are done.
Students today in particular are pressured in many different ways, they must wear the right clothes, do the "cool" things(even if YOU know it's not right), say things a certain way, act a certain way, but the biggest thing for me is they must preform a certain way. Simply "giving it your all" isn't enough any more. Students are CONSTANTLY put up against each other and compared to one another. So much pressure is put on them, basically from middle school until they finish college, that they must get good grades, there is NO other option. If you think about it, a diploma, even from Stanford or Yale is still, JUST A PIECE OF PAPER. It does not define who you are, it does not define your life. I'm not saying that students should just stop trying, but here's what I am saying, if you had two students that were each trying there best on a project, is it really fair to give one student an A, and one a C? What do you think that does to a person's self esteem? I can understand giving a C if it is obvious that the student simply doesn't care or didn't try, but if a student truly tried their hardest, and put a lot of time and effort into a project, who are we to say that this child's best isn't as good as the child before him? We are all humans, and therefore, we are NOT perfect, so instead of constantly striving for perfection that we KNOW we will never achieve, why don't we strive to do better, to give it our best and to learn from our mistakes? Schools put such an emphasis on perfection that anything less than the best grade isn't acceptable, meaning 99% of students are deemed "unacceptable" by school standards, but in reality, THAT'S unacceptable. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God."(NIV) I believe that we as students, and as humans need to worry about pleasing ONE authority, and that is the ONE authority that determines your future.
So, in summary, be happy for your chance to be ALIVE, be happy for your chance to live FOR GOD, but do not become so immersed in this world that you forget what a blessing it is to even be LIVING TODAY!
<3 Always,
Rose
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