This year I am strongly connected to the Old Testament stories because these are the stories we use in the Class 3 curriculum, the year in which a complete transformation of the children’s feeling life takes place.The transformation can be accompanied by feelings of loss, fear and struggle which the bible stories are a vivid reflection of and therefore they are of great support to the children to courageously overcome their challenges.
Right now we are approaching the time of Michaelmas. Michaelmas is a time in which many challenges come our way and each of us needs to find an inner courage to overcome the ‘dragon’, just like the 9-year-old child does. The story of angel Michael, in which he finds the courage to slay the evil dragon is a reflection of this inner battle in which we are called to face our own darkness with courage and light.
I am sure that somewhere in life each one of us has met someone who we said about “I cannot work with this person!” In that case we avoid interaction with this person as much as possible. This seems an easy way out but the inner battle continues until both parties can really meet and listen to each other’s views and feelings. When we share openly with one another, we realise how similar we are in our differences andit suddenly seems possible that we are able to connect and overcome our fears. Openness and honesty help make us a healthy andloving community and so yes, we are encouraged to become courageous in loving our neighbours in this way.
One of the bible stories I recently told is the story of Ruth and Naomi in which Naomi loses her husband and two sons. Naomi loses all faith and tells Ruth (her daughter in law) that she can go back to her family if she wants to. Ruth however is determined to stay and says:“Where you go I’ll go, where you live I’ll live, your people are my people and your God is my God.”In a beautiful song, the Dutch/South African singer StefBos extended this message:”Your dream is my dream, your path is my path, your future my future, your heart my heart. At the end of the song of Ruth, he sings the beautiful words: “I will stand by you even in difficult times. I will give of my love until the hatred fades”.
I believe that many challenges in life can be conquered simply by openness and honesty and sharing life with each other. I wish each one of us may be inspired to be honest and may our children learn from us that the truth is always victorious and grow confident in their courage to face this world during our approaching Michaelmas time. May they learnto be honest, caring and truthful, even when times are hard.
With love
Kristal Cox-Willemse
Class 3 Teacher