For those of you who regularly read my newsletter articles, you might recall a camping trip to Tumut last year and my pursuit of a big rainbow trout. Whilst fishing from the bank I watched a charter boat catch an absolute beauty right in front of our campsite. Since that moment I have been super keen to get out on a fly fishing charter boat, and I’m pleased to say that in the holidays I had that opportunity!
My eldest boy Will turned 10 last December and as part of a camping trip with just the two of us, we booked a drift boat fly fishing charter down the Tumut river. It was everything I had hoped for; beautiful scenery, a great guide and heaps of fish! Having never fly-fished before, our guide was our coach for the day, teaching, correcting and giving plenty of feedback. In amongst all the fishing and chatting, our guide made a really interesting comment about the teachability of different clients that he takes out. He told me the more experienced someone is with fishing, the harder they will find learning how to fly fish. I was fascinated by this as I would have thought that coming in with some experience, potentially decades, would have really helped someone new to the sport. Not according to our guide. Old habits are hard to break, some impossible.
This certainly got me thinking about the teachability of students, and how important it is for children to learn important character traits at a young age. With that said, it is no mistake that kindness has such an emphasis at PCS as they are at the core of Christianity and Jesus’ mission for us.
I am unapologetic in reinforcing the beautiful simplicity of Christianity. We’re called to love God and love people. I am so proud to be part of a school community where a culture of support and kindness is deeply embedded. From our parents to our staff and students; kindness is evident, especially when things get tough. When we examine the life of Jesus we see a man who showed unprecedented acts of kindness. He teaches us in Matthew 25 that when we show kindness and care for someone else, it is the same as being kind and caring to Him. No act of kindness is done in vain. The clothes we wear, the car we drive and the house we live in hold no significance to God, what really matters is how we treat others. That should bring all of us great encouragement and challenge our thinking at the same time.
The younger someone is, the easier it is to embed key characteristics. If we can work together as a school and family partnership to establish these traits at a young age, we are giving our children the best opportunity to experience real satisfaction later in life as they seek to meet the needs of others above their own.
Can I remind you that Jesus doesn’t love you because of what you have done, He loves you because of who you are. To Jesus, you are His and valuable beyond words. If we aren’t careful, we can really over-complicate this Christianity thing. Let’s remember that when we strip all the different doctrines, theologies and opinions away, we are left with the core mission to love God, love people and show kindness always. We aren’t kind to others because they have been kind to us, we are kind to others because we are kind. Let’s make sure our children believe that for themselves.
You may be interested to know that for all the fishing lessons learned and chatting about this and that, William caught the biggest fish of the day and chose not to brag too much… That’s kindness in action right there!
Have a great week everyone and throw in a random act of kindness for good measure. You may just change someone’s life.
Glen