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Chess For Success

Dress for success is a well-known expression.   Chess for success is even better because chess deals with our interior and not the clothes that present some desirable image that may not reflect who we really are.  “Chess for Success” is the title of a 2005 book that continues, “Using an Old Game to Build New Strengths in Children and Teens.”   Considering the mix of temptations, threats, and pressures facing our children, we know they need new and renewed strength. 

The author states: “One of the greatest skills to teach anyone is the ability to distinguish between quality and garbage.  Saturated as we are with media, videos, and political spins, our ability to evaluate takes on mind-saving importance.  In chess, the act is just as rigorously needed, as all moves and countermoves have to be held to the highest standard.  Ideas and situations have to be assessed fairly accurately, and the slightest misjudgment might lead to an overestimation of one’s chances…

Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation often interweave simultaneously during a chess game…The important thing is that chess challenges students to stretch their minds in ways that will be useful in school and in life…” 

Another way to stretch their minds is to apply the same approach (knowledge, comprehension, application, etc.) with the “game board” being our Bible.  Students must be challenged and helped to understand the usefulness of the Old and New Testaments in school and in life.   It’s not an outdated and old-fashioned text some would have them believe.  The proverbs alone are timeless.  For example, “A brother is a better defense than a strong city, and a friend is like the bars of a castle” (Proverb 18:19). 

Their best teacher is Jesus once they understand he has a Ph.D. in how to live and how to die.   He is our highest standard and the chess piece we call our King.

Deacon David Pierce

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