I first walked into the doors of Grace Lutheran School
almost exactly twenty years ago as a student teacher. I had a two year-old little girl, and I was
expecting my second. I didn’t know what
to expect upon entering into my student teaching experience, as I grew up going
to public schools. The first thing I
noticed was the small atmosphere, which made me immediately feel welcome. The parents, teachers, and students welcomed me
and made me feel immediately a part of the GLS family. I learned so much in those weeks of my
student teaching, and I always had Grace in the back of my mind as well as my
heart as I continued the remaining months of my college years and into
graduation.
After I received my degree, and still feeling the love from
my student experience, I put in my application to become an aide at Grace. I was so blessed to spend the year working in
the first grade classroom for the first full year, and my perspective changed
from being a student teacher to an aide, and then to a perspective parent. It was then that I made the very smart
decision, knowing now that God directed me the whole time, to enroll my oldest
child in the PreK program with Mrs. Beth Scholten. I watched my little girl
grow in her faith and academics, reciting letters and numbers as well as
sharing her love of Jesus in song and art projects.
Now having two little girls, I was very blessed to be
offered the sixth grade teaching position for the 2000-2001 school year. From there, I had not only grown in my faith
and love of Jesus, but I had watched how that faith and love grew in my
children, adding on my son in 2004. God
had special plans for my entire family when I received that student teaching
experience back in 1996.
Over the years, having two of my now-adult children spend
their entire educational years at Grace up through eighth grade, I see not only
the evidence of the quality in their education received, but how the seeds of
faith were planted very deeply. Academically, our children thrived, graduating
from Fargo North High School with academic honors and scholarships. Currently, my oldest is a nurse at Essentia,
and my middle child is attending NDSU on a fully-paid ride, holding a 4.0 GPA
and working towards a degree in respiratory therapy. They hold firm in their faith, ready to share
the gospel with those around them. Our son is still attending Grace Lutheran
School, and we are excited to see the fruits of his academic and faith building
experiences he is receiving here!
While many may be concerned of the smaller class sizes at
Grace Lutheran School, I can assure those people from experience that having
our children stay through eighth grade has been the best decision we could have
ever made for them. When they were asked
about attending other schools, and in this area the public schools are
excellent, my children always responded with “I want to stay at Grace to learn
more about Jesus!” While their answers always made us smile, we knew in our
hearts that those extra years spent at Grace not only helped them become the
people they wanted to be without fear of exclusion or being questioned about why
they believe what they do as Christians.
They are able to defend their faith with memorized scripture, Bible
stories, and an overall feeling of holding pride in what they know to be true.
When our girls left the school they had known for ten years of their lives,
even in a small class size, they headed out to the larger schools being rooted
in their belief in Jesus and made fast and life-long friends on top of the ones
they made at Grace.
As parents, every bit of sacrifice we made to have our
children attend Grace Lutheran School was completely worth it. We have only one shot in raising children to
become strong, Christian, and productive adults. Like I tell my own children and students as
well, our times on Earth are very short compared to the eternity we spend with
Jesus. We wouldn’t have done it any
other way.
