Blessings for the New School Year

When my kids were young, I loved taking them to pick out their new backpacks, school supplies, clothes and shoes for school. We would spend the day knocking it all out at once as we store-hopped on a determined buying mission. We checked it all off our lists as we braved the trenches of school supply aisles in the local supercenter. We would be armed and ready for whatever the new school year would bring.

As the first day of school closed in on us, endless questions plagued my anxious mind. Would the kids like their new teachers? Would they get to be in the same classroom as their best buddies?

We would all have to get into a new routine, back to making those bagged lunches and after-school snacks. There would be rides to practices and piles of homework. Of course, there would always be a few extra trips to the school to schlep the carelessly forgotten gear, lunches and assignments.

These days the school supplies in my family have been replaced with apartment furnishings, car insurance and college textbooks.

There are many times I wish I could go back to the days of making those early morning waffles floating in maple syrup before school. Those days that seemed so rushed, stressed and hurried, are now just cherished memories of a time I wish I could have back. It has flown by so quickly and without my permission. They are suddenly grown and gone.

I realized that as we reluctantly hand our kids over to new teachers, dorms, coaches and even their own apartments, we can simultaneously hand them over to the complete, unchanging, infinite protection of God!

He can and will be there to pick up the slack for us weary, anxious parents. We can trust Him to always be there when we cannot. Whether our kids are coloring at the first-grade art table or 500 miles away from us on a college campus, we can trust that Almighty God is watching over them and He will never leave them nor forsake them (see Hebrews 13:5).

I like to start my mornings, coffee and Bible in hand, sitting on my back patio with my dog curled up next to me. It's where I have my morning prayer time with God. It is where I hand it all over — my concerns, fears and worries — and ask Him to amazingly bless the days of my children. I ask for His ultimate protection over them. I visualize them covered in the full, securing armor of God. I pray that His perfect will be done in their lives and that they would make wise choices according to His word. I ask for His unceasing favor and noble grace to be upon them. I ask for Him to send a legion of His heavenly angels to surround my children continuously and to pluck them out of harm's way. I pray for wonderful Christian friends and teachers to surround them. I visualize the mighty hand of God holding them up, so safe and protected, so strong, changeless and unfailing. Then, as I continue on in my day, I know that my words will not return to me void (see Isaiah 55:11). I know God has heard me and if it is His will, He will honor my requests.

So, as we begin this and all new school years and as we are diligently packing up the school gear, waking the kids up early and sending them out the door, let's send them securely wrapped in the Lord's arms with an abundance of favor and blessings heaped upon them, dressed in their new shoes and of course in the full armor of God!

Copyright © 2013 by Nina Keegan. Used by permission.