Trinitas Blog

What parent wouldn’t want the best education for their child? To help make that decision, parents need information about the educational options available to them. If you aren’t comfortable with the status quo or want to give your children a better education than the one you received, maybe it’s time to consider a distinctly different kind of education.  

The government schools, and in many cases even the Christian schools, have been weighed and found wanting, and so we are all looking for something distinctly different for the education of our Christian children. Consider the three main ways a Trinitas education differs sharply from government schools and even other Christian schools and then explore the reasons why we should be different in these ways.

Is there anything a 19^th century Anglican Bishop can teach modern Christian parents about training their children? In short, absolutely! As Trinitas parents gather this week for the first Parent Traditio of the new year, they will be discussing a short essay written by J. C. Ryle entitled The Duties of Parents. In it, Bishop Ryle shares seventeen specific directives for Christian parenting that are gospel-centered and rooted in common sense while also practical and encouraging.

Yesterday, the Trinitas Board of Governors spent the entire day engaged in a continuous improvement discussion which resulted in an update to the school’s five-year strategic plan. Revisiting this process and document regularly helps the board ensure that the school is not only staying faithful to its founding mission and vision but is also thriving while improving in the execution of the same.

As valuable as that process is for organizations, it is equally important for parents to honestly assess where their family is in relation to the high calling placed upon Christian parents and to thoughtfully craft their own “strategic plan.”

Routines help to define a people. A group of market traders begins combing the news even before the trading bell rings at 9:30 a.m., hungry to get an edge on making the right move at the right time. A covey of construction workers share donuts and coffee before hitting the site for the day’s labor. A pack of public school kids rise from their seats to recite the pledge of allegiance and hear the crackle of morning announcements over the intercom. Routines do not require much attention to the routine itself—routines become second nature, an involuntary way of being in the world. Because we know that routines have the power to shape our orientation to the world, Trinitas starts the day with our own routine to orient and shape our way of being for the day ahead.

At a recent Annual Parent Meeting, Trinitas father and board member, Pastor Jon Mark Olesky, reminded us of the timely importance of Christian parents educating their children to engage their world. This is the third of three posts containing his comments.

The teaching needed is what is most often called, “wisdom” (Hb. khokmah). Many compromises will occur in Babylon without this wisdom. In the covenantal framework of Proverbs wisdom means skill in godly living. Proverbs, that often-neglected parenting book, the “father” repeatedly call his “son” to “find wisdom” (Prov 3:13), that is because children aren’t born possessing it, rather, “folly is bound up in the heart of a child” (and yes, “the rod of discipline” is needed to remove it!) (Prov 22:15). No, a foolish teenager doesn’t just “grow out of it,” wisdom must be given and received. Our children’s lives depend on it! “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Prov 13:14). It’s the way a young man avoids “the forbidden woman” (Prov 5 and 7), and that is because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10).

At a recent Annual Parent Meeting, Trinitas father and board member, Pastor Jon Mark Olesky, reminded us of the timely importance of Christian parents educating their children to engage their world. This is the first of three posts containing his comments.

“I don’t want to bring kids into this evil culture” is something I have heard more than once. Well-meaning Christians have long questioned the wisdom of bringing children into a fallen world. And while this hesitation might seem prudent, God doesn’t hesitate to command husband and wife, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28; 9:1). The earth is, no longer a utopian Eden, but a post-Eden wilderness, what the New Testament calls “Babylon” (Rev 17:5, 1 Pet 5:13-14). This Babylonian context isn’t foreign to children raised in covenant homes. The historical nation of Babylon was where the Jewish exiles were sent. Of those exiles, the most notable were four Jewish “youths… Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah” (or their Babylonian names) “Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego” (Dan 1:1-7).

As a father of five, I am greatly concerned with the cultivation of virtue in the hearts of my children. Frequent thought and active parenting has been invested in training my children in honesty, diligence, self-control, and respect. The lack of these virtues is tough to disguise. When children are disrespectful and lazy, succumbing to every desire of their flesh, they create what my mother would refer to as “a scene.” Yet behind the more common virtues, lies one that receives precious little airtime – Piety.

            Thank you so much for that kind introduction. Before we begin, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the administration and to all the senior class parents for providing me the opportunity to speak to these graduating seniors before you all tonight. And I would be terribly amiss if I did not congratulate you, seniors, on the many accomplishments that have brought you to this very place on this momentous evening. My purpose this evening is two-fold and somewhat paradoxical in nature. On the one hand, my job is to remind you that all of this evening is about you. On the other hand, my job is to remind you that none of this is about you, at all. Like I said, somewhat paradoxical. But there is a method to this madness, and I hope to demonstrate as much over the course of the next few minutes. There are many things I could say to you this evening; in truth, there are many things that ought to be said to you this evening, but that’s what all these good people are for. Lord knows I’ll need the backup. Yes, there are many paths we could tread, but I thought it best to stick to one rather familiar to you, and to me as well. Our progression this evening will follow a sort of timeline: First, we’ll revisit the past, taking great pains to put a very fine point on just what it is that you have been doing here at Trinitas for the past 6, 8, 10—and for some of you—13 years of your life; next, we’ll pause and ponder the precise precipice upon which you are perched, at present; and finally, we’ll look to the future, daring, even, to prescribe what must be next. So, let’s roll back the clock.