Children’s Education

I Was Physically and Mentally Exhausted Preparing for the Exam “Class, exams are around the corner. Seize the time to review. …” The countdown to the exam had begun. All of my classmates buried their heads in their books preparing for the exam. I couldn’t help but feel nervous in this atmosphere. My grades hadn’t been very good, and the grade for this exam was directly related to whether I could enter a good university, and whether I could find a good job, so I was very stressed out and wanted to quickly review for the exam. However, as the vice-president of the student council, I was in charge of many events. After I finished everything in school, it would already be 6 p.m., and I still had to look after my grandmother after that. I would only reach home around 10 p.m. In order to have more time to review, I stayed up until 2 to 3 a.m. and I still had to wake up at 6 a.m. for school. Because of overworking, I couldn’t focus during class and would often doze off. But I didn’t really have any other choice, since no pain, no gain. The only way for me to get good grades was to do all that I could to review for the exam. Time flew, the exam was getting closer and closer, I also picked up my pace. Because of the pressure from the exam, and burning the midnight oil, I wasn’t able to have meals regularly and sleep well, thus my eyelids swelled, I also started to experience headache, dizziness, absent-mindedness. I dozed off in class, I became hot-tempered, and I was very exhausted. I was also very irritated because I felt that preparing for exam was really so tiring and unbearable. Sometimes I really wanted to just give up and not sit for the exam. But I wasn’t resigned, so I had to grit my teeth and bear it. Gradually, I didn’t attend gatherings regularly. For the one-hour gathering on Saturday, I would go offline early. I also sent a message to the sister that I had to review for the exam and couldn’t guarantee that I could attend every gathering. After the sister learned about my situation, she replied, “Gathering is the path to maintain a normal relationship with God. Only after we have a normal relationship with God, can we gain God’s care and protection, can we be led by God in our studies and life. We have to know that God controls everything, rules and arranges everything in our life. When we encounter difficulties, we should come before God and pray; seek the truth we have to practice. Only in this way can we gain God’s blessings.” She also sent me some God’s words, but I didn’t read them because I was too busy. Afterward, my mother called me, she also reminded me that I should pray and draw close to God facing difficulties, and that I should have faith in God. Thinking of the sister’s and my mom’s exhortations, I was willing to entrust the exam to God. However, when I realized that my classmates had almost finished reviewing, but I still had a lot to review, my heart was in a turmoil, and I was flustered. I thought, “My classmates have already finished reviewing, but I still have so much to work on. What should I do? If I can’t finish reviewing, I surely won’t get good grades. No, I can’t let that happen! I must memorize the materials. Only in this way can I feel secure during the exam.” Then, I began again to live the life of burning the midnight oil. When I Relied on God, Everything Became So Easy One day, I felt like I was going to collapse, so I called my mom, “Mom, my exams are coming up, but I still have a lot more to review. History is the subject that I’m most afraid of, and it is also the toughest one. I have to stay up late every night to review for it, and I will have headache the next day. I’m so depressed….” After hearing what I said, my mom, in sorrow, asked me if I had prayed to God. At that moment, I felt guilty because I forgot to pray to God under the exam pressure. Then, she sent me a passage of God’s words, “Since the creation of the world I have begun to predestine and select this group of people, namely, you today. Your temperament, caliber, appearance, stature, family in which you were born, your job and your marriage, the entirety of you, even the color of your hair and your skin, and the time of your birth were all arranged by My hands. Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly.” She fellowshiped, “From God’s words we can see that since the day we arrive in this world, God has already arranged our fates. God has the final say on how our future will be and what kind of work we will do. God is the Creator, the arrangement God has made for us is the most suitable for us. We should believe in God’s sovereignty, learn to rely on God and submit to God. All we need is to do the things we should do, and that’s enough. If we practice in this way, our heart will also be at ease and very calm.” After reading God’s words and hearing my mom’s fellowship, I realized that although I believe in God, I had no true knowledge of God’s sovereignty. I had always believed that a good diploma would get me a good job and a good future. So I relied on my own efforts and seized every minute…

Every parent attaches great importance to their children’s education and Zhang Ju was no exception. In order to improve her son’s grades, she was very strict with his studies, only to drive their relationship into a stalemate…

By Xinkao Editor’s Note: China’s National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) is an event that makes many parents even more nervous than their children who actually take the tests. Will the children they’ve spent years painstakingly raising be able to secure their futures? Will their hopes for their children’s success become reality? Thoughts like this are oppressing for many parents, causing more and more parents to develop anxiety disorders. So, with what attitude should we face our children’s NCEE? As a Christian, she was able to face her son failing and re-taking the NCEE with a calm, happy, and relaxed attitude. How did she do it? Below, we’ll talk about her experiences. “Mom, I … I didn’t test into college.” Her son sat numbly in front of the computer, watching the slowly darkening screen. He had finally managed to get these words out through clenched teeth after a long silence. After he said them, he turned and went to his bedroom. Fang Xing stood where she was in shock. She didn’t dare believe her ears. It was a result that was impossible for her to accept. She thought, “I’ve expended so much effort for the last few years to make sure my son gets into a good college. How could this happen to us? Is our family really going to spend the rest of our lives as poor villagers? Will we never have our day in the sun?” Late that night, the air was hot and humid. The noisy fan seemed to howl next to her bed, filling the silent summer night into a deafening roar. Fang Xing tossed and turned in her bed as complex, indescribable emotions raced through her heart, and scenes from the past raced through her mind … Fang Xing was born into a poor rural family, and her parents were simple, honest peasants. They depended on farming to support five children, and their lives were very difficult. As a child, she wanted to leave the countryside and live a good life, so she swore to herself, “I will study hard, change my fate, and no longer live in poverty.” To realize that dream, she studied hard, reviewing her lessons late into each night, but although she came close, in the end she was not able to attend her ideal school. Unsatisfied, she wanted to take the entrance test again the next year, but the family didn’t have enough money, and she had no choice but to give up her studies and earn money through physical labor. She regretted not working harder at the beginning, and complained that there was no money at home to let her take her exam another year, and her heart was full of frustration and dissatisfaction, but there was nothing that could be done. After she got married, the birth of her son rekindled Fang Xing’s hopes. She remembered her own failure to attend university because of her family’s limited economic resources, so now that she had a son, she knew she had to work hard to provide him with a good schooling so he would have the chance to go to college and have a good future—he would achieve the dream she hadn’t been able to reach. From that moment, Fang Xing worked with all her strength to earn money, and she devoted herself to providing the best possible education for her son. When her son began elementary school, she spent huge sums to send him to advanced tutoring courses. She didn’t let him rest on weekends, nor over the summer and winter holidays. As he was preparing for the final cram before his high school entrance exams in his third year of middle school, Fang Xing even put aside all of the family’s farm work and expended all of her energy on her son, even personally dropping him off and picking him up from school. After he went to high school, to ensure he received an even better education, Fang Xing also spent 5,000 yuan on special tutoring classes for him on an online learning platform. Once, when she returned home after work, she expected to find him studying in front of the computer, but unexpectedly, she found him playing games. She angrily said to him, “I spent so much money on extra lessons for you because I want you to study hard and live a good life in the future, but instead I find you here playing games….” When her son heard that, he immediately stood up, slammed his hand on the desk, and shouted in answer, “The only thing you ever want me to do is study! I’m sick of studying! I can’t take it anymore!” When he finished, he turned, walked into his bedroom and, with a violent shove, slammed the door shut behind him. Seeing her usually obedient son suddenly so resistant, Fang Xing’s heart was filled with frustration and heartache. “Why doesn’t you understand what I’m trying to do for you? I work so hard to make money, save on food, and live frugally because I want you to study hard and have a good future. Isn’t all of that for your benefit?” The thought made Fang Xing feel miserable and wronged. At first, she thought her son was just in a bad mood that he would soon get out of, but what she couldn’t have expected is that, from that point on, her son intentionally began to distance himself from her. He wouldn’t let her take him to school or pick him up from school anymore, and he went straight to his room the instant he got home from school without saying a word. Seeing her son’s attitude, she couldn’t help but feel bitterly disappointed. But then she thought, “Even though my son doesn’t understand me now, one day he will realize my intentions are good.” As the date of the NCEE approached, tension gripped the school, and the students were doing their final bout of studying before the test. Fang Xing felt…

She failed in the college entrance examination time and again, and realized that God’s arrangements for our fate are always the best after obeying God.

She is a babysitter taking care of two naughty kids. After some time, she made the two naughty kids obedient. The secret is …

What is true happiness? Can good academic records bring happiness? The story between her and her brother will tell us the answer.

By Xiao Huan, China The high school entrance examination in 2012 was the first turning point in my life. My family had high expectations for me, and I confidently thought that I could get into high school. But I failed, and became very depressed. After that, I was unable to get over the failure for a very long time. Afterward, my mother realized that I was living in mental pain every day, so she read some of God’s words to me, “I am well acquainted with the thoughts of man’s mind and the wishes of man’s heart: Who has never looked for a way out for themselves? Who has never thought of their own prospects? Yet even though man is possessed of a rich and prismatic intellect, who was able to predict that, following the ages, the present would turn out as it has? Is this really the fruit of your own subjective efforts? Is this the payment for your tireless industry? Is this the beautiful tableau envisaged by your mind? If I did not guide all mankind, who would be able to separate themselves from My arrangements and find another way out? Is it the thoughts and wishes of man that have brought him to today? Many people go their whole lives without having their wishes fulfilled. Is this really because of a fault in their thinking? Many people’s lives are filled with unexpected happiness and satisfaction. Is this really because they expect too little? Who of the whole of mankind is not cared for in the eyes of the Almighty? Who does not live in the midst of the Almighty’s predestination? Whose birth and death come from their own choices? Does man control his own fate?” Through God’s words I came to know that God orchestrates and arranges the fate of us humans. We cannot foresee what rough and bumpy paths we will walk and what setbacks we will experience. From the outside, it seems unfortunate that I failed my exams, but from God’s perspective it had His good intentions in it. Under the leadership of God’s words, I was able to obey God gradually and walk away from my pain. When I had no illusions about my future and fate and was willing to submit to God’s arrangements, I gained admittance to nursing school. My whole family was overjoyed. I felt that God was by my side and could help me at any time. I thanked God from the bottom of my heart. In the blink of an eye, five years of nursing school passed. I was going to face the second turning point in my life—the nurse certificate examinations. This certificate was particularly important to me, as it proved I’d studied nursing. Without it, I couldn’t do any jobs related to nursing, meaning my five years of studying would have been wasted. I particularly thought of my father, who worked from dawn to dusk to provide for my tuition, and how it would disappoint him so much if I couldn’t get the certificate. For the sake of my own future and face, and to not let my parents down, I desperately wanted to get the certificate, and therefore I was under great pressure. As the exam day approached, I got more and more nervous. Every day I spent hours imagining life after the exam: If I made it, I would look so great in the nurse’s uniform; but what if I failed? How would my family and friends see me? How would I survive in society without a certificate? … The nervousness before the exam almost suffocated me, so I went to talk to my mother. She said, “Your nervousness is caused by your ignorance of God’s sovereignty. All of our fates are subject to God’s sovereignty. All we can do is to submit to His orchestrations and arrangements.” Then she asked me to read a passage of God’s words, “The life of man is entirely in God’s hands. Where a person can go and where he cannot go, what duty he may perform, where he lives every day, where he will live during what years, what else he will go do and for how many years, and at what points he will change life direction—all these things have been appointed by God in advance” (“A Person Can Live Life With Dignity Only by Submitting to and Revering God”). It is so true. God has already predestined my fate. If being a nurse is not decreed by fate, then no matter how hard I work for it, I will never be able to succeed. I’m just a created being, so I should submit to the Creator’s orchestrations and arrangements. Afterward, my mother fellowshiped with me a lot, and I realized that whether I would have a bright future ahead of me or not would not be determined by the results of that exam, but by God’s arrangements. Therefore, I came before God and prayed, “O God, I’m about to take the nursing exam and I’m not sure if I can make it. I wish for you to guide me. If I don’t make it, please protect me so that I will not blame You and will still submit to Your sovereignty.” However, I still had butterflies in my stomach, so I told God about all my difficulties and whatever was in my heart. Afterward, I read a passage of God’s words, “Regardless of how many truths people understand, … no matter how great or small their stature is or what their personal environment is like, something that they cannot be without is looking to God and relying on God in all things; this is the greatest wisdom. … Sometimes, looking to God doesn’t mean asking God to do something using specific words, or asking Him for specific guidance or protection. Rather, it is that when people encounter some issue, they are able to call on Him sincerely. So, what is God doing there when people…