Carey College
"In your light we see light."  Psalm 36:9
helping parents nurture children in excellence and truth for Christ
Our small classes, flexible courses, and biblically shaped school life enable us to fulfil our commitment to helping you nurture your children in excellence and truth for Christ.

Each term we publish a devotion in which we look at the guidance the Bible offers parent and teachers.

We encourage you to use these devotions to build up your trust in Christ, to strengthen your family's faith and practice, and especially to shape the godly instruction of the children God has entrusted to you (whether as a parent or teacher).

Previous devotions can be found here:
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Carey College
21 Domain Road, Panmure,
Auckland 1072,
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Doing Good
Micah 6:8
Posted10 March 2010

One of the ways God’s goodness is made known to us is by the good God does.  In that context, Micah’s message to Israel is not be good but do good.  They are linked of course: you cannot have one without the other.  But to be good can be so abstract!  We tell our children, “Be a good boy at school.” Or “Be a good girl with your chores.”  We might be better telling them what good it is we want them to do.  That is certainly God’s approach here:  “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8
How to Guarantee School Failure
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Posted 27 April 2010

The Deuteronomy 6 family does things together: that’s why they can talk about the things they do and grow children in wisdom, faith and moral character.  Without such a family life, whatever school does is doomed to almost certain failure.  A Christian school can help a family nurture children in excellence and truth: it cannot replace a family.  Consider:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.   Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.   Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.   Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Before you focus on the duties of this passage, look at the warmth and life it pictures!  Israel (and each of us too) is to love God and have his law on the heart.  They are to give their whole being - heart, soul and strength - to God.  The instruction of children is to spring from a relationship of uninhibited love for God.
Digest of educational news and commentary for parents and teachers
Digest of educational news and commentary for parents and teachers
Digest of educational news and commentary for parents and teachers
Are there issues you would like discussed in a devotion? 

Do you have questions about the Christian faith or about nurturing children?

We would be happy to publish a devotion on a topic or question of interest.  Contact us here:
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Motivation
Colossians 3:1,2
Posted 5 August 2010

What motivates children to do well at school - or to do the other thing?  Exactly the same as motivates adults: self-interest or God’s interests.  One or the other - there is no middle road.  When, in Colossians 3, Paul commands God’s people “set your hearts on things above … set your minds on things above … clothe yourselves [with things from above]” he is linking what we do to how we think to who we love.  In short, children like adults - your children like you - will think and do what their hearts love.

It is always a delight to see the enthusiasm for learning that oozes from every pore of a five-year-old starting school.  Some sustain that throughout their school-days - others don’t.  By the time some reach teenage years enthusiasm for learning and for the effort required to learn have been discarded with the other memorabilia of growing up.  But children’s nature does not change through growing up - their behaviour changes to reveal what they truly are. 

Nice kids can be selfish or selfless.  Happy kids can be obedient or disobedient.  Children who are liked can be diligent or lazy.  Youngsters can honour the parents or dishonour them.   Like adults they can serve God or idolise themselves.  Like self-centred adults, self-centred children can cover-up, and the older they get the more sophisticated the covering-up can become. 
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