Roy’s Ramblings

So last day of school for this year here in Brown County, and it seems like I have been attending award ceremony after award ceremony. I attended the senior awards night at the high school and watched as senior after senior was awarded scholarships, certificates, and various awards; I attended the middle school awards where I saw student after student getting teacher awards, GPA honors, community acknowledgments; and even at the elementary level there were awards for reading, writing and math … they do so much more than arithmetic anymore.

But, I noticed something in all of the award giving and receiving … a very small percentage of each class was actually awarded anything. A very large number of each group simply attended. Now don’t get me wrong, they cheered and applauded, they gave high five’s and knuckle bumps to the winners and everyone celebrated the moment. But it was just very interesting that the average Joe, the commoner, the largest percentage of students … had no moment of “fame”.

Except … in each grade level of the Middle School … Mr. Steele (the principal) gave out a special award. The Principal Recognition Award. It wasn’t for the smartest kid with perfect 4.0 GPA … It wasn’t for the most athletic one that scored the most points … it wasn’t for the best looking, or richest, or affluent, or connected, or even the correct last name … no, it was for the two students of each grade that promoted and displayed Eagle School Spirit wherever they went. These were the kids that had a good attitude at school, at games, in class, on field trips, toward teachers and students alike. These were the kids that had manners and were polite in the community and genuinely wanted to do good to folks they may or not know. These were the middle of the road awesome kids that just made you feel good to be around.

So what does this have to do with church, the Friday email, or even my ramblings? Well, I’ll be honest … I ‘d love to have a whole herd of Principal Recognition Award winners on my team, in my life, surrounding us all of the time. Now don’t get me wrong here, the brainiacs, the jocks, the over-achievers and all of the rest are AWESOME as well. I love them like they were my own kids … but most of them are life privileged and they have always been so. Most of the “are also attending” folks are the ones that do the best they can with what they have available.

So, I encourage all of us to achieve to the standards/recognition of the Principal Recognition Award – do good – to whomever you meet, wherever you meet them. After all … It is what we are called to do.

Be Blessed and a Blessings My Friends – Pastor Roy