Preparing Your Child’s Heart for Back to School
Summer is fun but school can be, too. This time of year we need to help our kids transition from flip flops and popsicles to textbooks and alarm clocks. That process goes beyond just shopping for school supplies. It’s important to prepare their hearts, too.
Here are three ways to encourage your children as they get ready to go back to school.
- Pray. Each evening as a family, pray for your child’s teachers and classmates. Pray that the teachers would find the time and energy they need to prepare their curriculum and class materials. Pray that they would be filled with wisdom and compassion for their students and that God would bless their calling. Pray also for your child to be surrounded by kind and loving friends, and that she would have the courage to live out her faith this school year.
- Create a schedule. Work with your daughter to devise a reasonable schedule that includes time for personal Bible reading and devotions amid all those homework projects and extracurriculars. Encourage her to be intentional about carving out time for family and rest as well, “for God gives rest to his loved ones” (Psalm 127:2b, NLT).
- Go on a practice run. If you’ve got to go back to school, you might as well make it a party. Pick a morning the week school resumes and invite friends to join you on a test run. Set the alarms, get dressed and ready, then meet in the school parking lot for donuts. It’s a great opportunity to get excited about the year ahead!
Regardless of how you prepare, be sure to remind your daughter why school is part of God’s plan for her life. Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,” she can do it, too.
