Donna Braband, ELCA Acting Director for Schools

The story is told of a Native American and his friend who were walking in downtown Chicago. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.
Suddenly the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.” His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!” “No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American repeated. “That’s crazy,” said the friend.

The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket.

His friend was utterly amazed. “That’s incredible,” said the friend. “You must have superhuman ears!” “No,” said the Native American. “My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you are listening for.” “But that can’t be,” said the friend. “I could never hear a cricket in this noise.”

“Yes, it’s true,” came his friend’s reply. “It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk.

And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed that every head within twenty feet turned and looked to see if the money was theirs. “See what I mean?” asked the Native American. “It all depends on what’s important to you.”

What is important to you as you look each year at a budget that needs to be expanded or contracted, re-worked and revised? Are you listening to those around you who need you to hear their needs? As difficult as is the task of putting together an annual budget we must always put what is most important out in the front -- the children of whom Jesus thought so highly that he championed them when the disciples tried to send them away. He  bent down, listened to them, and spoke to them in their language, the language of presence and blessing.

When we take a close look at our budgets, do we remember the children and their needs? If we do, we would find new and innovative ways to increase salaries, provide benefits, and add incentive programs for our teachers.

Do you hear the cries of the children suffering from loneliness, hunger, abuse, neglect, poverty, or hatred and work to provide scholarships so they can attend your school?

There are no easy or canned answers. We do need to look to our children. We need to listen to them and hear them as Christ heard them. Then it is our responsibility to look carefully at our budgets and income projections in light of our call to reach out to the congregation and community to provide the things that the children in our care truly need.

We need to retain our best teachers, finding sources of income to help provide them a living wage, benefits and incentives for their excellence in teaching.

We need to raise funds for scholarships to assure that any child that wants a Lutheran School education can have one.

The challenge in this is to stretch and twist our budgets beyond belief, to reach out into the greater community to look for funds to help reach these goals. Take up the challenge and reach out with prayer and enthusiasm for God’s little ones. If we don’t we aren’t living the lesson from Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Let us strive to give every child that blessing.

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