Before kids (BK) I was a classroom teacher. This past year I was given the opportunity (Thanks God) to get back into the classroom and teach 4th graders 2 days a week. We got to read a novel at the end of the year and it was great! We read Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins. It is a story of a young prince- Trave- who has to walk a hard road to learn what it means to be a king. As he walks the road in front of him, he learns to be a servant leader rather than a "muscle" leader.
I so very much enjoyed reading this book and then getting to walk through the book with my class of 4th graders. Trave comes to learn the three things that are a kings duty: To learn what is true, to believe the truth, and to act on that belief. At the beginning of the book, Trave is very much a spoiled little prince who believes that he deserves to be king because his father was king before him. He is provided with a teacher- Gris- who shows his that there is much more to being a leader than inheriting the power and teaches Trave that he must be worthy of being king. Trave betrays Gris and must learn the hard way that people are not always what they seem.
The journey that Trave makes as he works from spoiled prince to strong, yet still unsure, king can be paralleled to our journey as Christians. We are all sinners, we learn that we are sinners and then we must act on that and accept Christ. We have betrayed God and he chooses to forgive and redeem us and provides Jesus as an example of how to live. I loved the redemption that happens in Medallion and that we, like Trave, can never be so far from God's love that he will not offer forgiveness.
I highly recommend Medallion as a book that offers a great story of betrayal, redemption, and growth.
