Heartland Focus
March 4, 2010
This year, Heartland Christian Academy is celebrating its 30th anniversary of ministering to the children of the Bemidji area with Christ-centered education and training for a godly life. To the best of my knowledge, for all those years, our school’s theme has been “bearing fruit that remains.” It is on the school sign as you enter our property. It is on our stationery and business cards. For the next several weeks, join me on Heartland Focus as we explore what that “fruit that remains” might look like in the lives of our precious children.
February 25, 2010
This month we have been exploring together the treasure of relationships, including friendships that our children develop and nurture in school. Teachers can oftentimes be counted on as a friend to your child, but it is obviously not an equal relationship, and cannot be allowed to interfere with the respect and professional distance which a teacher- student relationship demands. However, there are some lessons that a good instructor can teach that are essential elements for friendship:
February 18, 2010
This month we are looking at the relationships that your child will develop during their school-age years. At Heartland, we pay attention to the relationships that are developing between our students, and we try our best to foster an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect. It matters who your child picks as a friend, and it is a matter of grave concern when a parent confides, “my son or daughter has no friends.”
February 11, 2010
February is a time that we traditionally think about relationships and the people that are important to us. For the next several weeks, I would like to focus on relationships in school, and how you as a parent can help foster healthy and encouraging relationships for your son or daughter.
February 4, 2010
During the month of January, I shared how children need deliberate, parental guidance to learn how to successfully make positive, God-honoring choices and develop the skills needed for mature, responsible behavior and adult decision-making. I urge you to go to our website, heartlandbemidji.org and listen again to those broadcasts, or download the transcripts for study.
In this first week of February, let’s examine the markers that you can be watching for that will indicate that the lessons for making good decisions are, in fact, being learned.
January 28, 2010
We have been examining this month on Heartland Focus the essential skill of goal-setting and decision making. I shared with you my personal conviction that this ability to deliberately make good choices and having the confidence to stick with them is a learned skill, one which godly parents neglect to their child’s peril.
January 21, 2010
This month we are focusing on the need for children to learn how to set goals, make decisions, and develop the confidence of knowing that they can make good choices.
Children can be taught to rise above circumstances and poor models for behavior offered by society. There is no greater gift to a child than the ability to make God-honoring decisions that will create a foundation for becoming an emotionally and spiritually mature young adult.
January 14, 2010
Last week, I proposed that our children need to know how to make Bible-based choices and Christ-honoring decisions and stick with them. If they are to grow in the spiritual disciplines that will lead to spiritual maturity, and aim at a life that is pleasing to God, then learning to set goals and priorities and carrying them out to completion is a must.
January 7, 2010
Welcome to 2010! Ready or not, the New Year has come. In reality, our calendar is simply numbers on a page, but psychologically this is an ideal time for teaching your precious children a skill that is both necessary for their future success and essential for their protection. I am talking about learning how to commit to decisions, set goals, and make wise choices. Joshua said to the people of Israel as he was about to take over the leadership of a nation from Moses: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
December 31, 2009
Last week, this broadcast aired on Christmas Eve and it was my privilege to send you Christmas blessings from all of us at Heartland Christian Academy. This broadcast will air first on New Year’s Eve, so I offer you again a word of blessings from all of us here at Heartland, praying that you will have a new year full of favor and opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in your corner of this needy world.
