The Gift of the Magi

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones..... O Henry

This Christmas, you have an opportunity to make a wise and loving gift. Consider your gift giving process this season. Christmas gifts, no matter their extravagance, can do little to satisfy temporal needs or wants unless they are a reflection of the love of the giver. This fact was well illustrated in the story by O Henry where the two lovers sacrificed their prized possessions for their gift to the other. You remember, she sold her hair to buy a watch chain and he sold his watch to buy her hair combs. Wise gifts? Yes, and full of love-- this is the meaning of "The Gift of the Magi". Sacrificial gifts from the heart are much more excellent than hurried gifts bought to fulfill a list and much more needed in this world of over indulgence.

Whether you want to buy something extravagant or supply essentials, your gifts will be a wise blessing to the giver as well as the families who receive them. As you are out shopping, be intentional, including your children in the decision making process. We are all in need of encouragement, love, and hope. So, as you shop for them consider, like the Magi of the Christmas story, three gifts; one to fill a need, one to fulfill a want, and one to encourage beyond the Christmas season.

May you have a blessed and Christ centered holiday season.

Let us give Thanks!

Psalm 118:1. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever!

As we prepare for our fall break from school and my favorite holiday -- Thanksgiving, may we also prepare our hearts to be thankful for all our blessings. I find as I get older, that I am most thankful for the hardships because that is where the most growth occurs. So it is with our precious school. As we see the separated campuses and unfinished gym project as a challenge, the Lord is using these circumstances to strengthen our resolve to love our school family. This was so evident this week at the Festival of Praise. We will look back to these years as fond memories and I am confident we will someday hold our Festival of Praise in our finished gym.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall is in the air!

No frost on the pumpkin, but you can definitely feel the wonderful Texas autumn as you drop those precious blessings off at school today. And what a blessing it is! God rescues us each year from the exhaustive summer heat just as He rescues us and gives us repose in His arms from the exhaustive schedules we "organize" for ourselves. Please stop and take a look around -- the trees are busy changing their leaves to the rich colors of fall and the sky is busy with the birds escaping the cool weather that is on the way. Yet, there is a peacefulness in it all. So too, can you find a peace in your "busyness" by glancing upward to our Father. Have a wonderful day!

Leadership

Leadership is the one word that sums up most of the issues we are facing in this world today. So, as we knelt before our Lord last Thursday, leadership was the prayer on our hearts.  We prayed for the leaders of our school.  As we prayed, we realized that the head master of WCS should always be a priority when we pray.  He is the one who stands in the gap for us all.  However, from there, we prayed for the deans, the members of the school board, teachers, and staff; their importance can not be discounted.  Funny how prayer works, still on our lips came prayers for the parents, supporters, and ultimately the students at our precious school.  We desire for us all to be likeminded with Christ.

As you drive by our campuses this week, please lift all our leaders, from Mr. Gravitt to the precious pre-k students, up in prayer.  Have a great week.

Danielle

Christian Education

We as parents of Weatherford Christian School realize our responsibility for the education of our children.  We have a special heart for Christian education and set that as a priority for our families.  How can we share that vision with others?  This year's Faith Promise dinner is a perfect opportunity.  Our speaker will be the headmaster at Sherwoood Christian Academy in Albany, Georgia.  If you think that sounds familiar, that is because Sherwood Baptist Church in that same town is responsible for the wonderful movies; "Facing the Giants", "Fireproof", and my favorite "Flywheel".  What a great conversation starter!  If you know anyone who has shown interest in why you choose to send your children to a Christian School, they may well be the ones to invite to join you at the Faith Promise Dinner on November 6th.  In fact, please prayerfully consider hosting an entire table.  Not only can you bless those who would love to be convinced that Christian education is an important step in safeguarding their legacy for their children, but it will also bless our school with more exposure and genuine support.

The only way our school can complete its financial vision, is for all of us to get involved and bring our community along with them.  We have several other events coming up to share with our community as well; our Fall Festival of Praise and our Chili-cook off.  Our prayer is for us to have fun AND share that fun with our Parker County community.

Our prayer power is growing!

Last Thursday our group doubled in size!  As we gathered  at the inspiring prayer room at our elementary campus, we were blessed as new Moms stopped in to pray with us.  We continued to pray for our children to "do hard things" and again lifted our leadership up as a group of men willing to listen to the Lord's guidance.  We also prayed for "A Place for Grace", a loving home of ten of our precious WCS students.  Join us this Thursday as we spend a few minutes in fellowship and prayer.

His Throne of Grace

What a blessing to bow before our Father with like-minded mothers; our humble intention was to plead for our school and in exchange He blessed our hearts.  If you have 15-30 minutes to stop by the prayer room at the elementary campus on any Thursday morning, we encourage you to join us.  We visit for just a few minutes to share heartfelt praises and needs for our school body.  Today, we prayed for all the parents who have recently experienced the "abandonment" of their older children to college.  We acknowledged that God is in control and they are fine in His hands.

We also lifted up any and all health concerns of our WCS family and friends, in particular anyone facing medical procedures or seeking an eminent cure.  God knows who is in need, so we are sure that although we only mention the names of those who have personally asked us to pray, all who are in need were covered by our intercession.

As mothers, we acknowledged the difficulty in letting our children "do hard things" or go through struggles.  We always want to rescue them or just do it for them.  So, we prayed that we would let any thing that comes through our Heavenly Father's filter for the edification of our children be allowed to strengthen their faith.  We know there will come a time in their lives where we, as parents, will not be there to catch them when they fall.  We need to let them face challenging circumstances now to prepare them to be godly men and women.  Remember, we are not raising them to be good children, but to be great adults.

Have a great week and we look forward to seeing you next Thursday!

First Day of School!

Welcome Back!!  What a great way to start the new year; in our new prayer room.  Many of the PTP members worked very hard over the summer to improve the elementary campus.  One of the improvements is the addition of a wonderful prayer room in the white house.  Please feel free to stop in and pray.  Several of us met this morning to pray for continued unity within our school and for the faculty and staff.  We gave a special "shout out" for our headmaster, Van Gravitt.  We are certainly blessed to have a godly man lead our school. 

We also prayed for our small group of prayer warriors to grow in number as this school year unfolds.  We will meet every Thursday morning after school begins, around 8:15.  There will be coffee and fixings.  We will convene with prayer, mention school related prayer requests, and take them to the Lord.  It is the goal of the Thursday morning prayer warriors to wrap up our time by 9:00 and to honor God with our prayer time.  In other words, we will not give in to gossip; although sometimes we laugh at ourselves and share personal ups and downs. 

Our student body was also on our hearts this morning as we lifted them up to our Savior.  We are especially excited about the new families we have joining us this fall and asked for a warm welcome from all of us to all of them.  If you can be the hands and feet of this request, we would love to know about it. 

Lastly,  we will be launching our new web site shortly and prayed for it to be extraordinary!

Have a great week and we all hope to see you next Thursday morning for a few minutes on our knees.

Seeking Him with you,
Danielle

It is a beautiful day for a round of golf!!!

As we enjoy this beautiful spring-like day, it is time to start finalizing our plans to join WCS at their annual Golf Gala.  First, please pray for a day just like today on March 27, for the event.  Second, if you have an exquisite item you would like to donate, please contact Kim Boone at the school (817-596-7807). Next, please prayerfully consider becoming a sponsor of the golf tournament and filling up some teams for either the morning or afternoon start.  Finally, come out and join us for the auction and gala that evening, it will be so much fun.....and you will probably find some items you just can not live without.

Let's get excited!

We have an opportunity to share the best kept secret in Parker County with our family, friends, and even some of "those" people for whom we have been praying.  Imagine how our school can become a Godly influence to our community and the world.  After all, that is our mission, right?  Please pray for the Lord to give you the names of people you already know who may be looking for just the right educational environment for their children.  WCS is hosting open houses this week which is the perfect time to give people a look!

I remember when the Mickles family told our family about WCS, and the rest is history.  That is all it takes, just talk about the things you like about our school and the teachers we are blessed to share.  Our school can only get better as we take an active role in increasing our enrollment, not to mention how the families who come to our sweet school can be blessed as well.

In His sufficient grace,

Danielle

Welcome to the WCS Prayer Corner!

Many of us as friends of Weatherford Christian School pray for our children, our teachers, our staff, and our volunteers.  We also want to lift up the ongoing projects of our school.  In fact, we all realize there are probably many opportunities for prayer about which we, as individuals, know very little.  Herein lies the purpose of this Prayer Corner blog. 

As we come into agreement on the issues of praise and concern for our school, we can be confident that our Heavenly Father feels strongly about them as well.  Since, all good things come from Him, we should come together and lift our praises and requests to Him.  In His will, and His will alone, will our school flourish and be the influence to our community and world that it should be.

The Prayer Corner Blog will be a place of encouragement, inspiration, and virtual fellowship.  We will post not just comments, but prayers for events and projects of our school; glorifying God by presenting our praise for His provision and placing our requests into His hands.  We at the Prayer Corner understand that when we put the plans for the future of our children and school into His hands, He is not only responsible for the outcome, but also derserving of all praise.

Join us as we begin this, first WCS blog, and let's use technology to raise up our school and families.  The Prayer Corner is meant for the general good of all, so we will keep the prayers and comments general in nature and will not proliferate any confidential or compromising information.  Come back soon for our first prayers!