Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of watching one young boy change before my eyes. This student is now going into 8th grade at the top of the entire middle school program, but he didn’t start out that way.
He came to Newark Christian School when he was in 5th grade from a school where he was being picked on, and during a time when his parent’s divorce was still fresh. In 6th grade when he came to my class, although he was really intelligent, it wasn’t showing through with his grades. He wasn’t being the student he and I both knew he could be. In 7th grade he came in determined to do and be his best, become school president, and get high honor roll. He ended up with two out of the three when he lost the primary election to a different young man.
I have never seen anyone make the kind of consistent turn around in their life like this student has. This year he completes all his work with excellence and even looks for extra work to do. At the start of the year, he moved in with his father and by the end of the school year his father had committed his life to Christ and remarried a Christian woman from the church my student convinced him to go to. His mother has even grown deeper in her walk with Christ because of her son’s influence. In every chapel and every Bible class he always has at least one insightful thing to say to spur and challenge others. My heart is overflowing with joy for the change that Jesus has brought in this boy’s life!
Next year he will have my vote as student president, and even though it will be hard to let him go, I am confident that this intelligent young man will get into a very good high school with a scholarship. There is no school that wouldn’t want him and I will be proud to send him off!