Good Morning Brown Clee!

This week we have started to think about our school Bible verse “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” from the Book of Matthew in the New Testament.  Yesterday we reflected on what this might mean for us – and considered how it could mean we should be living our lives in the way that God has taught us – to be the best person that we can be.

We are going to start focusing on what ‘being the best person we can be’ might mean and how it might mean lots of different things.  Today I want us to think about why it is important to always put our best effort into everything that we do – whether we like what we are doing or not.

Watch this version of Aesop’s fable – the Hare and the Tortoise.  Who do you think finds running the easiest – tortoise or the hare? – as you watch have a think about who is putting effort in and trying their best…and who isn’t…..

Some people find some things easy to do, while others find them difficult.  In this story the Hare finds running very easy – he is naturally fast with long legs and small bodies – whilst Tortoise finds running much more difficult – he has a heavy shell to carry and very short legs.

It should have been really easy for Hare to win the race – but he just doesn’t put any effort in at all – and even stops for a rest!  He really doesn’t try his best – whilst Tortoise just keeps on going, he is determined to try his best – despite being slower and heavier, and as a result it is Tortoise that succeeds and wins the race.

As we go through our lives we are all going to find that we are better at somethings than others, and there are going to be other people who find somethings easier than we do.  It is also very easy when things get difficult to want to try to avoid them, to want to give up, perhaps not even bother, and pretend we don’t even care about them.   But if we take this attitude, we won’t do the best we can – we won’t achieve our potential, and we won’t be following God’s most important rule – about trying to be the best version of ourselves.

So as you go through this week, when you are asked to do something that you find challenging or difficult – it might be running, writing or maths, it might be finding a friend to play with at playtimes or doing jobs at home – try and be more like Tortoise and put all your effort into it – try your best – you might be surprised at the outcome!

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Please be with us in times of weakness.
Give us the strength to overcome our difficulties.
Teach us to keep going when things are hard for us.
Help us not to take our gifts and talents for granted.

Help us, we pray,
To try our hardest every day.
Whatever we say, whatever we do
Please help us to let our light shine through.
Amen.