On 9th December 2019, Ms. Silvia Chan shared with us a message to reconcile the conflicting teachings of “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” and “Small things matter!” Using the iconic story of the All Blacks (New Zealand National Rugby Union Team, 16-time winner of the International Rugby Championship) cleaning up the locker rooms they used after every match, Ms. Chan illustrated how small things made big differences such as training discipline, forming good habits and leading to some desirable effects. So Ms. Chan encouraged us to “sweat the right small stuff”.

Indeed, paying attention to the rightly targeted minor details can lead to over-proportioned return. Let’s start from doing something small meaningful things, such as keeping our classroom clean.

On 2nd December 2019, our Brother John gave us some advice in light of the ongoing social and political turmoil. He asked us to not look to the past and bound by hurt and anger. Instead, we should live at the present to change the future. But Brother John didn’t mean that we should do whatever means necessary to force a change. Instead, he encouraged us to be calm and patient through prayer and to act only after proper calculation and planning.

Let’s pray to the Lord to calm our emotions no matter what kind of injustice we think we are facing. We also pray that the Lord will give us wisdom to find the correct goals and the right means to achieve them.

On 25th November 2019, our Vice Principal Mr. Ching shared with us many of his personal encounters with students, through which he realized the importance of the presence of loved ones during dark times. He pointed out that the political turmoil had left everyone feeling powerless and uncertain. Yet Mr. Ching discovered that the most powerful remedy was simply the presence of those who loved and cared about us. These special someone included God, who loved us deeply and saved up every single drop of tear we shed in secret.

So in this moment of darkness and uncertainty, let us lift up our eyes to the Lord and open our senses to feel His comforting presence. For as the Holy Bible comforts us: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

In his weekly message on 21st October 2019, our Vice Principal Mr. Leung tried to guide us to answer a serious question: “Isn’t it a big loss, if you don’t get a happy future after spend a lot of time or resources?” Using the award winning children picture book, "Sam and Dave, dig a hole", Mr. Leung pointed out that since as limited human beings, we could never know the full picture of our future or see any missed opportunities that had never been presented to us, like the Sam and Dave had never seen the diamonds and would never know that they had missed them. So it is really irrelevant to struggle at the question to evaluate our losses. Instead, Mr. Leung encouraged us to focus on the process, on the journey that we were taking to achieving something. Sometimes, when we do so, minor details that most people miss could be “pretty spectacular” to us, and other times, the journey itself may be the great reward.

So let us not only focus on the results when we are not getting any just yet. Some struggles are meant to be long and fruitless in any foreseeable future, but they are never meaningless in your life’s journey.