Central to our value and identity is being made in the image of God. This is something that we've spent a lot of time on in 2019 during PCG time. Briefly stated, we have value because we are made in the image of God. Because God is valuable, so His image is to be honoured also.
In practice this means that we need to speak and act and even think respectfully toward ourselves and toward others.
It is clear that students really struggle with this.
In order to help them, it occurred to me that they can all adequately recognise that people are made in the image of God, but they don't have a strong sense of who God is and what His glory (and value) is. The students who are the best at demonstrating their respect toward other students around them are those who seem to have a greater knowledge or intimacy with God.
To build a living sense of God's value, in order to grow students in how they value their fellow image bearers, I am focusing part of our PCG devotional time on knowing God better. We are looking into his glorious nature and character in order to grow our appreciation of Him, and each other. The more we value the One True God, the more we will value His image in each of us.
A great resource is J.I. Packer's Concise Theology, pictured below. Reading through entire chapters (2 to 2 and a half pages max) or summarising the main idea after reading a passage of Scripture.
It is always important to emphasise the difference between us as the created and God as the Creator. As each attribute or aspect of God is considered, we can see how great He is and how lowly we are, so that we can then see the honour of bearing His image.
