Our Christian Values

 

Strength

^{(Click here for our schools Google Slide Presentation on strength)}

When each of us were born God gave us a personal strength. A strength could also be called a talent - something we are good at. Our strength is a most precious gift from God. At KingsGate, our students and teachers have been gifted lots of different strengths by God. Some of us may have a strength in ...sharing. While some of us may have a strength in... helping others. Some of us may have strengths in... listening to others. While others of us may have a strength in… working together. Some of us may even have the same strengths. There might be two people at school who have a strength in encouraging others. (That’s always handy!) The important thing to remember is that God has given you a strength as a gift and he wants you to use it…. not hide it away. Do you know what else? God wants you to develop and use your strengths right here at KingsGate School. Your strength is like a brick in the wall of God’s temple that Nehemiah helped build. Each brick was important for Nehemiah as the Jewish people built the strong temple wall together, and here at KingsGate each person’s strength is important as we build our own strong temple together. Using your strength for God is one of the most important things you can ever do, and it makes him incredibly happy when you do! We know this is true because it says in 1st Peter, Chapter 4 verse 10: “Each of you have been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in service of others. So, use your gift well.”  (Youth Bible Global Edition pg 1059)

 

Empathy

 ^{(Click here for our Schools Google Slide Presentation on empathy)}

Empathy is the ability to understand how someone else is feeling or to understand the situation they are in. It is the ability to “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” and to understand the way a situation might make them feel.

PART 1: First, empathy is about sharing an emotion with someone, or feeling the way they feel, even if you aren’t in the same situation. When you feel an emotion along with someone, even if you aren’t directly affected by whatever is causing their situation, that’s empathy. Have you ever felt sad with a friend just because he or she was sad? That’s empathy! So, for example, if you feel sad with your friend because they didn’t make the soccer team (even though you aren’t affected by them not making the team) that’s empathy. Sharing their sadness is a kind of empathy.

 

PART 2: The second part of a definition of empathy is about being able to understand someone else’s way of looking at a situation, even if you see it differently. We often call this “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” and it means you see things from their point of view, or from their perspective. Having empathy means you can step back from the way you see a situation and think about how someone else might feel from their side of the story. Does the Bible talk about empathy? It sure does! Romans 12:15 “Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.” Galatians 6:2-3 says “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” Do you know there is no record of Jesus feeling sorry for Himself or dwelling on any of His personal suffering? For instance, He didn’t talk for months about that trying time with the devil in the desert (John 4:1-11) or constantly put down the people who He served who left Him once he was arrested. He didn’t try to make the other disciples hate Judas after Judas betrayed Him. Instead, Jesus was empathetic toward others and the physical and emotional pain they were experiencing. 

As much as Jesus suffered physically through His arrest, torture, and crucifixion, His heart and mind was on the emotional pain His mother was experiencing as she witnessed the torture and death of her firstborn son. Her care and provision, after His death, was paramount on His mind (John 19:25-27). Jesus never minimized anyone’s pain, compared it to someone else’s, or told someone “don’t cry.” He hurt along with them.

 

Respect

^{(Click here for our schools Google Slide Presentation on respect)}

The Bible tells us in 1st Peter 2:17 “Respect everyone...” It doesn’t say “Just respect your friends” or “Just respect those who have lots of money” or “Just respect those who are Christians”. It says respect everyone! There are many ways you can try and describe what “Respect” actually is and what it looks like when you are using it. Someone once said that, “Treating someone in a way that makes them feel cared for and important” is a good way to describe respect. I thinks that's a pretty good way to think about it. Do you know Jesus said “You must love each other, just as I have loved you” and in an another verse he says “Treat others as you want them to treat you.” Do you want to be treated with care and made to feel important? I think we all do. But that means we have to treat everyone with care and make them feel important too...we just don’t get respect for free. We have to give it to get it. The word “love” is also directly linked to the word respect. We don’t have to always agree with everyone but if we start from a place of love we are starting from a place of respect. God’s word tells us that we should respect everyone, no matter who they are! God loves them just as much as he loves us and if God loves them, then we must love and respect them too. God leads by example and we should always follow.

 

Vision

^{(Click here for our schools Google Slide Presentation on vision.)}

Having VISION means that you have….“the ability to think about or plan your future with imagination or wisdom.” When you have a vision, you are setting yourself a goal. You are setting your sights on where you want to be, what you want to become or what you want to achieve. There’s one very important thing you have to do when you have a vision you want to achieve and that is to…PLAN! Vision is part of our values word SERVE so when we set goals it’s important that when and where we can we set goals that help not only ourselves but others too. In the Bible there is an awesome story of a man who had a vision to help others - in fact he had a vision to help a whole nation. His name was Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the wall of the temple in Jerusalem. And he planned very carefully to achieve this. In 55 days, his vision was complete! It’s amazing what you can achieve when you do God's work. Having a VISION doesn’t just happen. You have to make it happen. You have to pray hard so God will guide you and you have work hard with all your strength. You have to motivate yourself and that means making a plan and then following your plan. Nothing great has ever been achieved by people sitting on a couch and doing nothing.

 

Endurance

^{(Click here for our schools Google Slide presentation on endurance.)}

Endurance is about using your inward strength to accomplish what is difficult even when you feel like giving up. Endurance rises to the challenge and focuses on the joy of crossing the finish line and the reward at the end. There are many, many examples in the Bible of people who endured. Here is just 3 of them. Noah had to endure people making fun of him while he was building the Ark and when he was on the Ark he had to endure 40 day and nights of rain! He also had to endure being so close to so many animals for such a long time. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego endured the flames of the furnace. Their faith was so strong an angel was sent to help them endure the hot flames that licked around their bodies so that the flames did not hurt them. What about poor Job. He had to endure so much! His sheep were struck by lightning, and gangs of thieves stole all his other animals. All his children died in an enormous sandstorm and he was struck down with disease! For us here at KingsGate the most important time someone had to endure something was when our Saviour Jesus endured his time on the cross. Jesus could have called an army of angels to save him but he stayed on the cross - he endured the pain and the suffering so that our sins could be forgiven and that one day we will all be in heaven with him! Wow - what a reward we have waiting for us because Jesus endured on the cross.