“Sam, I need your full face,” I say as I place my hands on those cheeks I’ve kissed ten thousand times.  I look him square in his dark chocolate eyes and give him clear direction, “First, brush your teeth; then, get your soccer gear, and last, grab your coat.  Three things: teeth, soccer, coat. Got it?” “Yes, ma’am. Got it. Three things.” I kiss his forehead and hope for the best as he bounds up the stairs. Does he make it down with all 3 tasks accomplished?  Usually. I’ve learned that if I really want my kids, or any kids, to listen, I need their “full face.”

As we’ve been reflecting on attention this year- what it means to attend upward, inward, downward, and outward- I’ve been challenged by my own inability to really attend to anything for any meaningful length of time.  My tendency, honestly, is to turn my thoughts inward. I love to be in my own head, planning our next camping trip or thinking about the book I’m reading or the interesting podcast I just listened to. I love to mull things over internally and can sometimes (okay, very often) seem distracted and distant to those closest to me.  In fact, I often get annoyed when my inner life gets interrupted by my outer one. Can’t a woman just be left alone with her thoughts? The simple answer is no.

God calls us to love Him and to love others with our whole heart, soul, body, mind, and strength.  God calls us to put the needs of others ahead of our own. And God calls us to attend to those around us with grace and patience, even (especially) when we’d rather be left alone.  This doesn’t mean we should never seek solitude and silence for times of contemplation and reflection. Those should be routine disciplines for every thinking believer. However, it does mean that when we are with others, we need to be actually with them.  We need to give them our “full faces.”

Attending outward is a discipline.  It is a discipline of taking captive our thoughts, dying to self and turning our hearts and faces in love and grace outward to those around us.  This outward attention and care for others does not come naturally, but rather supernaturally, and requires our continual abiding with Jesus and in His word.  And, beautifully, God is the supreme example of One who attends well.

“What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  Psalm 8:4

Isn’t He the Shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the 1?  Isn’t He the Poor Widow who scours the house for the one lost coin?  Isn’t He the Father with His eyes fixed on the road bursting into a run at the sight of his prodigal son coming home?  He attends to us. He attends to us well. He attends to all of us with exacting care and amazing grace.

So, as we enter into the season ahead, let’s follow the lead of our King Jesus. Let us take time to give our full faces to those around us- to put our hands on their faces, to look them square in the eyes, to notice their freckles or the musical notes in their voices, to be with them, to listen to them and to care for them.  And, then, in worship and gratitude, let us turn our full faces to the One whose gaze never leaves us and always looks on us with astounding, lavish love.

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.    Psalm 121: 3-5

The post Classical Education: Attending Outward first appeared on Austin Classical School | Austin, TX.

As a school, we learned history from Columbus to Peter the Great.  We learned to read and write and grow fish and reduce fractions and Latin noun declensions.  We learned that God gives us our daily bread and that Martin Luther wrote a Mighty Fortress is our God.  We learned to respect authority and to take responsibility.  We sculpted soap like Donatello and played fun games in PE.  We learned to be good friends, to say that we’re sorry and to think of others before we think of ourselves.

We learned so much, but the most important things we learned were about God.  His fingerprints were on everything we learned because He’s sovereign over all of it AND because He is infinitely discoverable.

In light of all of those truly amazing things, I wanted to spend some time this summer reflecting on what we learned about God.  And I think our best chance for summing it up is found in these three sentences.

We learned that God is True.  He is True to His Word which we hid in our hearts.  As many of us heard countless times this year, James 1 still rings true:

“Consider it pure joy when we do bar models or number bonds of many kinds?”

“If any of you lacks wisdom about Latin let her ask God who gives generously.”

“Let no mom say she is being tempted by God to drink before 10am, because God tempts no one.”

And, my personal favorite: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above- yes, even your children.”

His Word is True and He is True to His word.  He does give joy when we seek Him no matter the circumstance.  He does give wisdom when we have nothing.  He does lead us from temptation.  He does send good and perfect gifts when we least deserve and if we’ll only open our eyes.  He is True.  And we are grateful.

Next, we learned that God is good.  He is so very, very good.  He never runs out.  His grace is sufficient.  He loves beyond measure.  He gives abundantly.  He never sleeps and never slumbers. His eyes are on us.  He delights in us.  He sings over us.  He listens when we pray.  He comforts when we’re down.  He stoops low to lift us up.  His Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom where wrongs are righted and slaves are set free and sick are healed and old is made new.  He’s so good.  And we are grateful.

Lastly, we learned that God is beautiful.  So very lovely.  His creation.  The many faces of ACS. How He inspires writers to write and artists to create and musicians to play and teachers to teach and neighbors to give and friendships to deepen.  It’s just beautiful.

Our God is True.  Our God is Good.  And our God is Beautiful.  And, oh, how we love Him here at ACS.

I look forward to sharing some more thoughts with you as we continue to enjoy this Summer season and prepare for our new school year to start this Fall!

The post Lessons on God first appeared on Austin Classical School | Austin, TX.