Back to school!
The stores are crammed with school supplies and lunch box snacks in every aisle. Can the summer be over already? Mothers are dancing and kids (and teachers!) are moping. It must be true.
I have a terrible first-day-of-school memory.
It was my freshman year of high school, and I was literally shaking with fear and anxiety. I rushed to catch the huge bus that would carry me to Bridgeton High School for the next four unscripted years of my very sheltered life. Growing up in Elmer, I had been educated with the same 23 kids since kindergarten. I had walked to school twice a day (we came home for lunch) for nine school years. What drastic changes were coming my way…and even back then, I didn’t do change or “the unknown” well at all. I was scared out of my mind.
I had never ridden on a school bus, and it would take 40 minutes one way each day. I had never eaten in a cafeteria or packed my lunch. I had never changed classes, had a locker with a combination to remember, worn a gym suit, carried my books around, had multiple teachers, used hall passes, navigated one way stairwells, and had hundreds of classmates swarming around me. And I had never had to get up so early. That was the worst.
But I didn’t have a choice. I had to go. And I was late.
I had vainly fussed over my hair and makeup too long. My clothes had been carefully decided upon and spread out for weeks, but my hair, with a mind of its own, decided not to cooperate that morning. Shoveling down my mandatory breakfast, I practically had to run to Elmer School, probably about a mile away, where I would catch the dreaded bus. The uneven sidewalk along Front Street was shaded back then, and I remember hearing the birds singing in the trees, calming me down a bit.
Until one of them let loose on my head.
Really.
It dribbled down my carefully arranged curls onto my brand-new, light blue blouse. A huge, juicy plop. I had no tissues. I had nothing. I cried. Now my makeup was running down my cheeks. I ran faster. I couldn’t wait for the safety of the bus so I could hide.
I really don’t remember how I cleaned myself up, if a classmate had something I could use or whether I had to hit the lavatory the minute we arrived at school. Remember, this is long before wipes and sanitizers were invented. That part of the day is just a blur.
But I do know my hair was gunky and plastered to my head and my mascara was gone. What a first impression I made on all those sophisticated city slickers! It was true. Elmer kids were all dumb—and messy—hicks. I was mortified.
There is a lot that could be said about this now-comical memory of mine, but my main point in relating it today is to simply say this: All kinds of unexpected things happen when our kids go off to school.
Some of them are silly and unimportant, easily handled, laughed at, or overlooked altogether. But there are other events that are much more significant than my sparrow attack. There are painful, life-altering, and innocence-robbing circumstances that our children are woefully ill-equipped to know what to do with. And we are not there.
Thankfully, our Heavenly Father is.
We know we can’t anticipate or control all our children’s life experiences, especially when they are away from the protective environment of our homes. Who could have foreseen a bird dropping? No matter how loving and responsible we are, no matter how carefully we manage and train, we live every day in a broken, messed up world full of broken, messed up people—and birds. Into that, we send our most precious gifts from God, our children.
We spend hours and dollars preparing our kids to go to school—clothes that fit their ever growing bodies, back packs, tissues, notebooks, glue sticks, fruit snacks, Gogurts—so many things, so much time. All of this is necessary.
May I humbly suggest that it is even more necessary to spend an even greater amount of our energy and time praying for our children while they are in school or on their way? How we need our Ever-present Father to watch over them! How He loves for us to ask!
I have a laminated card in my car that gives me verses and specifics to pray for my children and grandchildren every day. I found a similar one on the FamilyLife Today website earlier this year to share with our parenting class members. A Parent’s Daily Prayer Guide, compiled by Don and Sue Myers, missionaries for many years with Cru all over the world, suggests seven specific requests we can pray for our children, one for each day of the week.
Here is their list with verses you can look up and cling to.
Monday: Ask God to place a protective, solid hedge around your children so that Satan cannot reach in and lead them into temptation and so they will be safe from harm (2 Thessalonians 3:3; Psalm 33:20).
Tuesday: Pray that your children would use godly wisdom in selecting friends and peers that will make a positive difference in their lives. Ask God to give each child a discernment of people as well as knowing the difference between right and wrong (Proverbs 1:10; 18:24; Deuteronomy 13:6,8).
Wednesday: Pray that your children would stay pure in their thoughts and deeds (Psalm 24:4-5; Job 17:9).
Thursday: Pray that they will be caught if they wander into cheating, lies, or mischief (Hebrews 13: 18-19).
Friday: Pray they will be alert and thinking clearly as they attend school and extracurricular activities and as they take exams. Ask God to help them be motivated to do the best they are capable of doing (Colossians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
Saturday: Pray for the spouse each child will marry someday. Ask that they will come from godly homes and have an appetite to live the spiritual truth they’ve learned. Pray also that their goals and purpose will be the same as our own children and their future homes would be godly (Deuteronomy 5:29).
Sunday: Ask God to help them live their lives for Him and that He will use them as a testimony and witness for His glory. Pray that they will be grown to full spiritual maturity (Psalms 78:1-8; 103:17-18; Isaiah 54:13; Ephesians 3:20-21).
Do not leave your children unprotected—that is, vulnerable to Satan’s attack. The greatest shield of protection we as parents can provide for our children is prayer. It’s never too late to start (1 Samuel 12:23; James 5:16; Colossians 4:2).
This is a good place to begin, isn’t it? I know it is not an exhaustive list. I add things for my particular child or grandchild, requests that are personalized just for him or her at this moment in time. I often pray that they will hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they will love God’s Word, that they will love justice and mercy and walk humbly before their God, that at an early age they will acknowledge Jesus as Savior and King and follow Him all the days of their lives. I pray against fear and worry. I pray against self-love and deceit. So many things. So many beautiful children.
Such a Big, Wise, Loving, Powerful, Comforting, All-knowing, Ever-present God!
Will you take a bit of time each day to cover your children with prayer this school year? Will you ask the Father to do what you cannot? It’s never too late.
A bird poo attack is the least of our worries…
May God bless you and keep you and your dear children this year and every year.
—Eileen Hill
