Unreported Grades

The following address was given to 6th grade graduates:

Today it is our privilege to congratulate you, dear graduates, on your reaching this milestone in your life. You have worked hard; you have done your best. You are to be congratulated. But above all, we pray that you may receive a humble and thankful heart for the strength the Lord has given you to reach this milestone in education.

In a few days, you will be receiving your final report cards for this school year. Some of you will do well in Mathematics, some in Spelling, and some in English. Some of you will remember your teachers with joy and most of your subjects with pleasure. Some of you may remember how difficult one or more subjects were. But probably all of you will open your report card and look at your grades with some expectancy. Did I get that “A-” in Reading, that “B” I was hoping for in Social Studies?

You are interested in your grades because your grades tell you something about how well you’ve done— yes, something about yourself. But today I want to ask you to stop and consider for a few minutes four unreportedgrades—four important areas of life for which you will receive no teacher-grades. Just ask yourself the following question after each one of these four areas I will be mentioning: Did I pass or fail?

The first area I would like you to test yourself on is this: What is your attitude to work?You know that work is not the result of sin. God works, unfallen angels work, and God gave Adam the task of dressing and keeping the garden of Eden already in Paradise before we fell. Being diligent and a hard worker is praised in Scripture. Paul tells us that the man who doesn’t want to work, should not be allowed to eat. Some never seem to see work. Do you? Do you work hard—not only when you are told to, but even when you are not told to? Do you work with pleasure, using the talents and abilities God has given you to the best of your ability? This past year—did you do your school work with pleasure as a gift from God, or did you complain about having work to do? Did you show ability to concentrate in order to complete a task, or were you easily distracted? Whatever your hand found to do in school, have you done it with all your might? Have you done your work, as to the Lord, and not for other people—not even just for your teacher? How does your report card look on your attitude to work— pass or fail?

Second, ask yourself this: How does my report card look this year in terms of service—in terms of loving God above all and my classmate as myself? Did you realize and show this year that real living is loving service? The Bible says: He that would be greatest among you, let him be as one that serves. What have you done for your classmates, your teacher, your mother, your father, your grandparents, and others whom the Lord has placed in your path of daily life? That person who seemed to want to pick on you—did you love him and do things for him? When someone began to criticize one of your fellow students—were you the one to step in and stick up for him? Or did you become a criticizer yourself? Did you reach out this year to help that person in your class who had the least number of friends? Which of these two questions did you ask the most this year: “What can I get?” or “What can I give?” Have you learned that it is more blessed to give than to receive? Who were you serving—mostly just yourself? Loving service—how does your report card look? Pass or fail?

Third, I wonder how your report reads on thankfulness.Did you show thankfulness to your parents this year for sending you to this school? Thankfulness to your teachers for training you? You know, your Mom, Dad, and teachers all made a lot of sacrifices to give you your education over the past seven years. In providing you with a God-centered education, they gave and are still giving you something that no amount of money can buy. This is something you can’t buy at the mall, can’t put into your bedroom or on your bike, but it is something to build your life on. Are you thankful? Pass or fail?

And finally, I wonder how your report card reads on seeking God.Dear graduates, have you been seekers after God in your elementary years? Have you prayed and sought the Lord with your whole heart? Did your being unconverted become a great burden for you? Did you learn to hate sin and to love the Lord? Could you live through your elementary years without receiving a new heart from the Lord? Was the Lord the most important Person in your life?

My dear young friends, if the Lord spares you, you will soon be in the high school building. We pray that you may pray that the Lord may bless you there with new hearts and with His grace— grace to realize that the most important things in life are not recorded on your report card. But there is One who knows all your grades—also on things that your teachers can’t grade. That is God Himself. You can perhaps deceive other people—perhaps even yourself, but you cannot deceive the Lord!

Dear graduates, in God’s record book, we have not all done the same, but we all have failed many times. We all have come short in our work-habits, our service, our thankfulness, our seeking of God. Every one of us needs to flee to God for mercy and grace—I as your minister, your parents, and you yourselves. Ask the Lord, dear graduates, to forgive all your shortcomings, to wash them in the blood of Jesus Christ, and to remember you in this precious Savior who never came short in anything. Oh, dear children, this precious Savior delights to take also 6th-graders by heart and hand, and lead them to Himself! Pray that He may convict you of sin, so that sin becomes

lead them to Himself! Pray that He may convict you of sin, so that sin becomes truly sinful for you. Pray that He may bring you to Himself as a lost sinner, desperately needing Him. Pray that he may so lead you that you may come to know Him and love Him as the One in whom you may find strength to work, to serve others, to be thankful, to seek God. What a blessing that Jesus Christ did all these things perfectly for sinners! Pray that the Holy Spirit may make room for these blessings in our hearts.

For you and I need to need all our thoughts, words, and actions—all our unreported grades—dipped in the forgiving, cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. Dear boys and girls, you need a new heart in order to properly face your teen years. Oh, flee to the great God of heaven and earth who loves to steal the hearts of children from the clutches of Satan! “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Is. 55:6).

Seek grace from God to think, speak, and act biblically, rightly, conservatively. Be not ashamed of biblical truth, biblical doctrine, biblical practice. Pray that the Bible may by your compass to guide you through life, to keep you from sin, and to steer you into the paths of obedience to God. Oh, pray that you may be Bible-readers, Bible-livers, and Bible-lovers!

May God bless you out of His free and sovereign grace.

Dr. J.R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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