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:
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:
Copyright © 2011
Carey College
All Rights reserved
Carey College
21 Domain Road, Panmure,
Auckland 1072,
New Zealand
E-Mail: enquiries@carey.school.nz
Do not send unsolciited
commercial email
Carey College
All Rights reserved
Carey College
21 Domain Road, Panmure,
Auckland 1072,
New Zealand
E-Mail: enquiries@carey.school.nz
Do not send unsolciited
commercial email
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
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
Children Will Die
Luke 9:23-25
Posted 16 February 2011
“What good is this year’s schooling going to be for my children when they die?” That is the question we should be asking at the start of a new school year. How well is their learning, the goals we set, and the achievements we applaud fitting them for eternity? Jesus said that gaining the world but losing the soul is foolishness. Will we, will our children, rejoice or regret when this year’s schooling is recalled in eternity?
Your children are going to die.
We hope and pray that our children will die in old age. But unless Jesus returns first, it is certain they will die. “What a morbid way to start an exciting new school year!” you may protest.
Yet if we take Jesus at his word, that is exactly how we should start a new school year. “What good is it,” he asked, “for a man [or a child] to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25) The most important goal for your child this year is not gaining but keeping: not gaining the world, but keeping the soul.
Luke 9:23-25
Posted 16 February 2011
“What good is this year’s schooling going to be for my children when they die?” That is the question we should be asking at the start of a new school year. How well is their learning, the goals we set, and the achievements we applaud fitting them for eternity? Jesus said that gaining the world but losing the soul is foolishness. Will we, will our children, rejoice or regret when this year’s schooling is recalled in eternity?
Your children are going to die.
We hope and pray that our children will die in old age. But unless Jesus returns first, it is certain they will die. “What a morbid way to start an exciting new school year!” you may protest.
Yet if we take Jesus at his word, that is exactly how we should start a new school year. “What good is it,” he asked, “for a man [or a child] to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25) The most important goal for your child this year is not gaining but keeping: not gaining the world, but keeping the soul.
Get the Treasure!
Matthew 6:19-21
Posted 12 September 2011
We all like stuff. Children and adults alike love to have things. We also know the truth in Jesus' warning: neither the stuff we accumulate nor the pleasure it brings lasts. We know we should store up treasure in heaven where it lasts and keeps on satisfying. But do we? Do we even know what Jesus is talking about? What is that treasure and how do we get it? How can we help our children get treasure that is truly worthwhile?
What about school? What do you treasure in your children’s schooling? You can be certain that what you really treasure is what they will treasure. Is it even possible to find a balance between encouraging children to do well in school while teaching them to treasure what is in heaven?
If Jesus is to be beleived - and he is to be beleived - then it is not only possible, it is necessary.
Matthew 6:19-21
Posted 12 September 2011
We all like stuff. Children and adults alike love to have things. We also know the truth in Jesus' warning: neither the stuff we accumulate nor the pleasure it brings lasts. We know we should store up treasure in heaven where it lasts and keeps on satisfying. But do we? Do we even know what Jesus is talking about? What is that treasure and how do we get it? How can we help our children get treasure that is truly worthwhile?
What about school? What do you treasure in your children’s schooling? You can be certain that what you really treasure is what they will treasure. Is it even possible to find a balance between encouraging children to do well in school while teaching them to treasure what is in heaven?
If Jesus is to be beleived - and he is to be beleived - then it is not only possible, it is necessary.
Be Amazed! God is at Work!
Psalm 19
Posted 30 January 2012
There is so much to see, hear and learn about: and all of it radiates the glory of God. Yet children (and adults) so often miss seeing what is wonderful, and so they miss the glory of God. Psalm 19 tells us that if we see what is there the way God sees it, we will not only be amazed, but our lives will be changed.
The Psalm begins by declaring that the universe is showing the glory of God s handiwork. It is, according to the Psalmist, as if the universe is speaking - if only we could hear it. Not only is God speaking about his glory in everything we can see or sense, but he is doing it in a way that ensures there is nowhere where that voice is not heard.
It follows that if children (or adults) are not constantly marvelling at God's glory, we are not listening to God's voice.
Psalm 19
Posted 30 January 2012
There is so much to see, hear and learn about: and all of it radiates the glory of God. Yet children (and adults) so often miss seeing what is wonderful, and so they miss the glory of God. Psalm 19 tells us that if we see what is there the way God sees it, we will not only be amazed, but our lives will be changed.
The Psalm begins by declaring that the universe is showing the glory of God s handiwork. It is, according to the Psalmist, as if the universe is speaking - if only we could hear it. Not only is God speaking about his glory in everything we can see or sense, but he is doing it in a way that ensures there is nowhere where that voice is not heard.
It follows that if children (or adults) are not constantly marvelling at God's glory, we are not listening to God's voice.