by Jennifer Greene-Sullivan
Today, Liam brought home his weekly progress report in the signed papers folder that he never opens. He is living his best, unencumbered, stress-free third-grade life, completely unaware of grades, tests, or the academic roller coaster his mother is riding on his behalf. Until the folder comes home, that is, and I ask the familiar question, “Where is your signed paper folder?”
He gives the equally familiar response, “Oh yeah!” as if it has only just occurred to him that such a thing exists. In that moment, I am reminded that each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34), and most of it arrives in elementary school paperwork.
This nine weeks has been a struggle, mostly in math, but today, it was his ELA grade that took the hit. A 92 has quietly become a 79, and this old English teacher is feeling every dip and curve of this academic ride. As I flipped through the pages, I realized we are constantly reacting instead of being proactive, chasing missing bellringers that were meant to anchor his learning. So I had him pull the grammar bellringers out, sit down, and have him complete what had been left undone. I shook my head while I checked his answers the way I know his teacher will. In those small, ordinary moments, I am reminded that whatever we do, we are to work at it with all our heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23), even when the assignment is a third-grade grammar page.
Then, I saw it.
At the bottom of the page was the prompt:
“A person who lies is a ______.”
In Liam’s third grader handwriting, he had written one word: SINNER. I drew the familiar teacher-mama slash and told him to add the grammatically correct answer, liar, because he had completed the other grammar questions properly. Yet, he looked at me with complete confidence and said, “That answer is right, Mama,” and the weight of all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) settled over Chris’ desk in our tiny office.
In the grammar of his ELA classroom, his answer was incorrect because the system requires patterns, consistency, and measurable responses. A person who calculates is a calculator, and a person who operates is an operator, and in that structure language behaves in predictable ways. However, in the grammar of the Gospel, Liam’s instinctive answer was deeply true because he has already learned that sin is not merely an action, but sin is a condition that points us to our need for a Savior. Somewhere between family devotions, Scripture memory, Sunday school, and ordinary conversations, the Word has been written on his heart in the way Deuteronomy commands us to impress these things on our children and talk about them when we sit at home and when we walk along the road (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). The worksheet was asking for vocabulary, and my child answered with theology.
What struck me most was not that he missed the grammatical pattern, but that the truth of Scripture rose to the surface without prompting. While I am watching grades and missing assignments, the Holy Spirit does the deeper work of formation that cannot be measured by a progress report. We are raising children in a world that is constantly pressing them into its mold, and yet we are praying that they will be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). Sometimes that transformation shows up in church, and sometimes it shows up on a bellringer. Either way, it is evidence that the seed of the Word is taking root.
This is the tension of Christian parenting in real time. We are teaching them how to function in systems that require right answers and correct formats, and at the same time, we are asking the Lord to form hearts that recognize truth beyond the worksheet. Of course, I made him add the word liar because he must learn the structure of the ELA classroom. Honestly, I also paused long enough to see that the greater lesson had already been learned because man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). What the grade reports cannot measure is the theology forming beneath the surface.
For those of us walking this road, the temptation is to panic when the numbers drop, and the papers come home incomplete. Yet, the call of Deuteronomy has never been about producing perfect students but about forming faithful hearts. Your child may be struggling within the system and growing deeply in the Spirit at the very same time, and those two realities can exist together. One day, you will see it in a sentence, a prayer, or a response that stops you in your tracks and reminds you that God’s Word does not return void but accomplishes what He desires (Isaiah 55:11). Sometimes it shows up in the most unexpected places.
The world will measure Liam’s progress in numbers and letters, and I will continue to help him navigate that faithfully. Thank God, there is another progress report being written, one that reflects a heart that already understands sin, truth, and the need for grace. That report is the one that reminds me that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58) even when we are correcting bellringers at the tiny house office. Today, on a third-grade grammar page, I caught a glimpse of it.
Lord, help me to teach him the grammar he needs for this world without ever correcting away the theology You are writing on his heart.
Obviously, in the grammar of both heaven and earth, a young man who preaches is a preacher — and I am praying that long after the bellringers and progress reports are forgotten, leading others to Jesus will be the pattern his life follows.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the holy work of forming our children in the middle of ordinary days and incomplete assignments. When we are tempted to measure their growth only by grades and performance, remind us that You are writing Your Word on their hearts in ways we cannot always see. Give us wisdom to teach them the structures they need for this world while never losing sight of the Kingdom identity You are shaping within them. Help us to be faithful in the small, daily moments of correction, instruction, and encouragement, trusting that Your Word is accomplishing exactly what You have sent it to do.
Lord Jesus, guard our homes and our conversations so that truth is the first language our children learn to speak. Let our tables, our car rides, and even our homework time be places where Your Spirit is present and active. Teach us to labor without fear and to rest in the promise that our work in You is never in vain. We surrender both the progress reports and the deeper formation to You, believing that the good work You have begun in our children You will be faithful to complete. In Your name, Amen.
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