We Need More Worms

by Adam Kronberger / Superintendent

When I was a boy, my brother and I loved to go fishing with our friends. But to go fishing, we needed worms. First, we asked our parents and with a meager donated dollar purchased a dozen worms at the local corner store. But we needed more. So we watered our yard in the evening and went nightcrawler hunting that night. But we wanted more. We heard about a farmer who had a fertile field full of worms. We knocked on his door and struck a deal. He said we could have all we wanted, as long as we shared our fish with him (assuming we caught some). 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  Matthew 7:7. We asked our parents, we sought nightcrawlers, and we knocked on the farmer’s door and he opened his vault to us. Jesus may not have been talking about worms, but he certainly was encouraging this month’s character trait of resourcefulness. We want to encourage our children to take the initiative to solve problems with the resources at hand. I am grateful for my parents provision as a child and appreciate many of the necessary services our country’s taxes provide. But as we seek to “abound in every good work”, we can’t sit back and expect somebody else to do it all for us. Worms weren’t just going to fall from the sky. If we wanted to fish, we needed to be resourceful. And what we had out our disposal was our God-given abilities.

When we truly ask, seek, and knock at the feet of Jesus, often our prayers are changed even before our lives are changed. When we surrender and confess that the only source of abundant life is from Him, our outlook on our wants and needs begin to change. As we begin to align our will with His perfect will, it is amazing to experience answered prayers, found treasures, and opened doors. Practicing resourcefulness is not just about taking initiative and working hard, though those are important traits. True resourcefulness is leaning on the ultimate source of salvation through Jesus and abundant life through following Him.

As students practice resourcefulness this month, we pray that they learn how to ask, seek, and knock. Not just at Jesus’ feet, but also in His Kingdom. God’s perfect creation was ruined when sin entered the world. But as heirs to the throne, God expects us to redeem His creation. As a boy, nothing was better than a pail full of worms, as it usually turned into a pail full of fish. May our children pick up the pails of resources God has given them to become fishers of men through their daily testimony. 
 
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– Adam Kronberger / Superintendent