An Open Letter to My Students

February 21, 2011

An open letter to my students:

Skyler, Noah, Kelsey, Jeffrey, Eric, Jacob, Brandon, Ana, Stephen, Ally, Kara, & Eliza,

There is a restlessness in my soul tonight, a need to express to the twelve precious individuals who entrust their education to The Trinity School and its teachers. I pray that through this “open letter” only serves to help you understand how deeply I care and love each of you. There are some who I have known for years are more, some, only months, but each of you have such a place-hold in my heart that cannot ever be replaced.

You twelve are the very first students of The Trinity School. You are setting the standard for what and who is to come - from your enthusiasm for music, to the beautiful pieces of writing you turn in to me, to the laugher, and the joy and the family-ness that I see in each of you, whether you see it or not.

You each are precious children of God, placed here, in this time and school for a specific purpose. Your names will go down in history as being the very first classes at Trinity... the very first students in our maiden year. What an exceptional honor you have given me, to make the choice to come to school here, for whatever reason.

We talk a lot about sacrifice, about service, about leaving what is comfortable for something that takes us out of our comfort zone. I want each of you to know that I choose to be here, every day, because I love you dearly. I chose this life, because I wanted better for you. There isn’t enough money in the world that can equate to seeing and being a part of a teenager come to know Christ as their savior. No sacrifice is too great to be a part of that.

I hope that you know how much I pray for you, for your salvation, for the worries and struggles that you have in your life, for peace to be with each of you that surpasses all understanding. I cannot stress that enough, how much each of you has touched my life in such a way that I am incredibly honored and humbled by each of you.

It is my greatest desire as your teacher is to love each of you - through the weirdness, the teenage squabbles, the interruptions, the laughter, joy, tears, fun, all of it. I want you to look back on your high school years and realize, yes, we had a lot of fun, but also, that you were challenged, that you knew you were loved, that you realize how special this place truly is. I want you to be challenged, to be uncomfortable. When we look within ourselves with honest and open eyes, we discover the truth about what is there. This makes us uncomfortable sometimes, and I pray that you are constantly made to feel that way in your discovery of yourselves. I want to teach you about life, I want you to learn from my mistakes, I want you to reach for greatness. God did not put us on this Earth to be ordinary. He made us to be spectacular human beings, with a great objective and goal to live for Him.

I’ll take the spiritual warfare, the teenage drama, the financial instability because it means that we -Trinity, and her students, are following the right path. Our journey has already been set, and our battle has already been won by the sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb, but know that each of you are here for a specific purpose. It is the teacher who was the hardest that you will remember the most, because you learned… not because you had a good time and goofed off, but because you came away with more knowledge about life than before. That is what my goal is: to be a living depiction of Christ’s love for each of you – enough to die a brutal and terrible death – so that we could have eternal life in Heaven. I don’t know where you are in your salvation… maybe you walked the church aisle a long time ago. Maybe you have always thought “God doesn’t me – I’m too messed up, too screwed up, made too many mistakes” and if that’s where you are, let me introduce you to some people I know who messed up, screwed up and made mistakes. Can I tell you that God cares about the one unsaved person in the middle of the millions of people? He made us to be strong, to have an incredible ability to be brave in the face of struggles and trials, and a resiliency that surpasses understanding.

You twelve are an amazing group of kids. I count my blessings twice, three times when I see each of you in the morning. I stand in awe at what you conquer in your own lives - drugs, divorce, death, depression, difficulties with parents, sexual immorality and impurities, language, distractions, trouble with friends, relationships with boyfriends, girlfriends, best friends, parents, grandparents, siblings etc. etc. I’m blown away by each of you and your ability to keep putting one foot in front of the other, every day, to get done what is needed to get done. That is a tremendous blessing to everyone you are around, including me. I pray that you know that I respect each of you immensely.

I have vastly high expectations for each of you - and you have met and conquered every one. I believe in you. I have faith in each of you. And I know that you will continue to excel, because that’s what you’ve come to expect from yourselves (whether you realize and admit it or not!). You have risen to the occasion of being “Trinity Students” and continue to meet us, step for step, matching excellence for excellence. It is a tremendous accomplishment, a step out in faith. Who knows what kind of influence you will have on the world - a pebble dropped into a lake causes thousands of ripples, affecting and changing the world. Each of you are a pebble, dropped into a lake.

Trinity is a special place, a unique place. I believe in what we stand for. I believe in our students, in our faculty. I believe in our foundations. But most importantly, Trinity is its students – and they are who I believe in the most. Because, without them Trinity would not be here. And for that, I thank you. You have changed my life, and given me more than I can possibly explain or even try to categorize. I know that I don’t have to be there at the end of your life, to see where you have come or gone. I do recognize that I am there at the beginning of your Christian walk, and it is an inexpressible honor to see the joy in your faces when you share your testimony for the first time, to hear your voices raised in song, praising our Lord, to hear the laugher from the next room, to listen to the questions being asked, the thoughtfulness of responses, and the responsibilities that you have shown to me.

In some ways, I wish that you could have a mirror that looked into the past, so you could see what I see in each of you - how far you have come, even in the months spent together, the strength of your spirit.

I pray that all of you know how much I love each and every one of you. Regardless of everything, you all are a truly, incredible group of young men and women and I am proud of who you are becoming.

It isn’t often that a teacher gets to spend 3 or more years getting to know her students on a level that goes beyond teacher & student. I know that I don’t tell you often enough, but I consider you family, and I pray that you have learned half as much from me as I have from you.

Always in Christ,

Brooke