Will there be any stars in your crown?

Over the last few weeks, teachers have been working on student reports. Support staff and teachers have read through lots of students’ assessments as they helped the students to successfully complete their tasks and demonstrate their learning in different areas. Report writing is probably one of the least enjoyable activities that teachers have to engage in and yet they must be done to keep parents and students informed of what has been achieved and strategies to improve. These reports have a lot of information on how the student has settled into their class, their work ethics and possible challenges among other things. In this season of report writing and proofreading, I am reminded of the ultimate assessment of how we have lived our lives and the influences we have on others for God.

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt, an American poetess whose words were set to music by Professor John Robson Sweeney, wrote of the Christian belief in “assessment” when life’s journey is done and questions in the chorus:

Will there be any stars, any stars in my crown
When at evening the sun goeth down?
When I wake with the blest in the mansions of rest,
Will there be any stars in my crown?

Hewitt encourages us to watch, to pray and to work in soul-winning till Christ comes when with joy, we can show the souls we have won for the kingdom of God.

As the teachers have crafted their reports, a lot of joy and pride in the students’ accomplishments shine through their comments. I am hoping that when the reports are out, at the end of this term, parents and guardians will read them with the same care and attention to detail that the teachers have put into each of the reports. Parents and guardians, when you read the reports, will there be any stars in your crowns for your young person’s achievements? How about your own for this half of the year?