Letter to Family and Friends

Dear Pilgrim Families,

Each morning at Pilgrim School the staff gather before students arrive for devotions together. Some days we pray for specific aspects of school life, some days it's for particular classes (covering each student and each class across each term); some days we sing worship songs together; and some days we hear from staff about their Christian journey. And each day we pray for the day ahead.

This year we have been focused on the Psalms. Many of the Psalms are songs or poems, but they don’t appear like songs or poems we are used to today. It’s hard to imagine any of the Psalms actually being sung. The words don’t rhyme… the lines don’t have the same numbers of syllables… I reckon it would sound terrible if we tried to sing them with our modern thinking of what songs are meant to be.

There were a number of authors who contributed to the Psalms, but David penned the majority of them. And many of them are David expressing his raw feelings and emotions to God – crying out to God, or reminding himself and acknowledging God for His goodness.

It’s a fantastic reminder to us that we don’t need to use flowery language or to make our prayers ‘beautiful’, rhythmic, or like poetry. The Bible instructs us to come to God like little children (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:15), so don’t think you need to have it all together before approaching God. The simple faith we see expressed daily by our amazing students is a terrific example to us all.

So don’t worry if your thoughts and words are not poetic. Whatever you are thinking and feeling – whether it’s well-composed or a jumbled mess – take it to the Lord today.

Warm regards,

Michael Denholm

Business Manager