The Blessing of Backpacks, Sunday August 21
The other day the boys and I pulled weeds together in our
flowerbed. We had a deal: for every
minute they finished in under an hour, they would receive three bonus minutes
of game time! In the end they worked 50
minutes (ten minutes early=30 extra minutes of games). As we
worked, the boys were actually pretty excited about it—and not just for the
games! It was good exercise, there was
shade, and after an hour the flowerbed looked great! After working and sweating a while, I reminded
them that many folk do this sort of work all day, every day, for very little
money. I said, “This is why I am always
excited about the start of a new school year.
Education is the best chance to get a great job.”
It did not help them feel better about the start of school—August
22—and my response wasn’t 100% accurate.
I am also excited to start school because they’ve been out for ten
weeks! Back to routines! Back to alarm clocks! Back to homework! And with school starting that means summer
will end soon and we’ll get some relief from the heat! Can a brother get an AMEN?
On August 21 we’ll devote a part of our service to pray over
and bless children and teachers as a new school year begins. I know my advocacy for an end to summer will
not sit well with teachers, but come on.
Enough is enough! Let’s get on
with a new year! Now aren’t you excited
too? (crickets chirping…) Anyway, we
want to encourage all of our children to bring their backpacks to worship at
the 11:00 service. They’ll bring them
forward and we will pray over them. We’ll
give each Oak Lawn kid a tag for his/her backpack to remind them that God
watches over them all year long. Then we’ll
invite teachers to come forward for a special time of prayer. They’ll need to remember God’s blessing for
them too. Because it’s back to school
time—or have you not heard? Ha!
Seriously, I am always grateful for teachers. Some of you know that before going to
seminary I taught 8th grade US History. It was awful.
Not the kids, they were great—but the parents, administrators, politics,
oy. It was horrible. I am always thankful to God for calling me to
work elsewhere, and I appreciate the difficult work our faithful teachers offer
our kids. They deserve our respect and
trust. And our prayers. So join me next Sunday, August 21 as we pray
for our children, bless their backpacks, as well as honor our teachers as a new
school year begins. The best year ever!
Comments