Finishing the Year with Fortitude
by Carl Warmouth
The final quarter of the school year brings about some challenges that require a fresh renewal of fortitude. Boredom, mundaneness, and dull routine combine to make a formidable foe, and it’s tempting to ask if the struggle needs to continue quite so vigorously. Where can we find the determination and grit needed to finish the year well?
Look to Good Stories
One of the reasons why we read so many great stories in our classical Christian schools is to fill our students’ minds and hearts with a vision for what virtue looks like. Those mighty battles that keep us turning pages long into the night impress on us the valor of fortitude in a way that only stories can.
But while it’s easy to focus on action, we can find examples of other seasons of darkness and trouble that are more similar to our own struggles. In the The Two Towers, how many pages of Sam and Frodo plodding along through tedious, wearying drudgery does Tolkien use to illustrate this point? It is dull monotony that often leads us to the sin of discontentment, causing our eye to wander to fictitious greener pastures just beyond our reach. I have been there, and you have too—if our kids haven’t been yet, they will soon.
God himself has given us examples of how to live with fortitude in both exciting times and mundane ones. In Scripture, we read about Moses, David, Abraham, Job, Nehemiah, Jesus, and the Apostles enduring in times of trouble. “Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Was Jesus a quitter? I don’t think so.
Embrace the Bigger Picture
As parents, we often want to rescue our kids from the trials, but it is a futile task. “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly toward heaven.” (Job 5:7) The translation for my southern upbringing would go something like this: “Sure as shootin’, trouble is a’comin.”
Aside from the preponderance of evidence that children who endure healthy struggle reap many benefits (less anxiety and depression, more confidence and aptitude in problem solving), there is a much greater goal—an eternal vision. We are called to be Kingdom builders. To go into the world and make disciples. (Mt. 28:19-20) To tame and subdue the wild things. (Gen. 1:26-28)
Classical Christian education gives children the opportunity to develop the virtue of fortitude among people who love and support them so they are prepared to engage, or at least persevere, in a world that often has an averse and sometimes violent reaction to the gospel message. When you or your child feels frustrated about homework, playground conflict, a limited athletic program, or a teacher your child does not like, I encourage you to embrace a grander vision.
Over the years I have told hundreds of parents that classical Christian education is not about getting into the best college or landing the highest paying job (although those are often side blessings). It is about how your daughter will hold up under the pressure of the advances of a boy, how your children will hold up under the pressure of a professor hell-bent on undoing their faith, how they will hold up under the pressure of a boss asking them to make an unethical business decision, how they will bear up under the burden of a debilitating illness, how they will bear up under the burden of losing a child. I had no idea that my own children would face both a debilitating illness and the loss of a child. By God’s grace, and the virtues they developed in classical Christian schools, they endure these trials with grit while clinging to Jesus for their strength.
Build from Small to Great
Parents in classical Christian schools all over the country should find encouragement in the many ways that their children have demonstrated fortitude so far this year. From stories of a soccer team persevering one man down through an entire season, to students getting a second wind on that last lap in PE, to a child struggling through a difficult math concept, the lessons they are learning are becoming part of the fabric of their being.
Conflict and tension are the ingredients that make stories great, and there is no doubt that your children will experience their share of that “greatness” during the years that they are in school. Enduring through times of trouble with friends, disappointments, and academic rigor can seem overwhelming at times, but it is precisely at these times that we can impress upon them the relevance of this important virtue. Teach them to embrace these challenging times so they can say as Nehemiah said, “Should a man like me run away? I am doing a great work here and cannot come down from this wall.”
Carl Warmouth is a husband and father of classical Christian educators and has served as a teacher and administrator at three different outstanding classical Christian schools.
