Repairing the Image of God in Us (part 1)

When I began writing about a biblical worldview of education on this blog, I did not anticipate how useful the writing process would be for my understanding and choices in teaching. I have grown in my convictions about God, about man (specifically my students), and the world through these different posts. In one of my earliest posts I began arguing for the image of God as a significant idea that shapes our worldview and philosophy of education. From the idea that we are like God and represent God I've shared that education is the work of bringing out and developing the image of God in our students so they can live more and more like God. I believe the image of God is where our students get their potential and natural gifting. Our students are like amazing athletes that have been seriously injured because of their sinfulness and are incapable of fulfilling their potential. So, as educators, we help nurture and develop that potential in them as much as we can while not falling into atheistic lie of secular humanism. The development of the image of God in our students (and us) is a redemptive work.

Well, as nice as that sounds, I've really spent little time talking about the specific potential in our students and the ways they are like God. I've only defined this term broadly. I need to take the plunge and get specific, so I now want to drill down even further in thinking God's thoughts after him in the area of education. How? I want to begin defining several aspects of the image of God in our students (i.e. their potential) and then determine what change or development (outcomes/goals) I hope will occur in the students I have the privilege of serving. In other words what repairs in the image of God are we working toward? I've been thinking about these for a long time, but I've been intimidated by this task for a while. Here's how I propose to move forward this discussion:

• I want to describe briefly one aspect of the image of God in our students
• I want to share what will change or develop about that aspect of the image of God

This could take some time...