It’s the first day back to school here in my sweet little hometown of Austin, MN. I spent the morning pouring through posts & pictures on Facebook of friends & family sharing glimpses of their morning.  There were the sweet little smiles of Kindergarteners waiting for the big yellow bus to pick them up and take them off to school for an entire day.  There were excited Seniors ready to conquer their final year and enjoy all the lasts this year will offer them. Some parents posted of their excitement to ship the kids off to school and to a more structured routine. Others were white knuckling it as they dropped off their kids and the door shut behind them.

But no matter what season of life you find yourself in this morning, we all want the same things for our kids. We want them to have a great year. We want them to learn, to be a good friend, to stand up for what’s right, to learn respect for others and to have other trusted adults speak encouragement into them.

We have so many hopes and dreams for our kids.  They are as unique and individual as our children themselves. But we also know that this world holds no promises that they will sail through life without any problems. In fact, we know that to be impossible. So today as we have prepared our kids in every other way: bought them new school clothes, new shoes, paid the fees, did the supply list shopping, bought the special calculator for their pre-Algebra class and packed their lunches….can we do one more thing? 

Let’s pray over our children.

Let’s take a minute and ask God to give them the ability to learn the concepts being taught, to give them His love so that they can be a good friend, to give them the confidence and bravery needed to stand up for what’s right. It’s all in Him. Everything we need is in HIM.

Here are 2 of the verses I’m praying over my kids this school year. I inserted “my children” into them to personalize them.

“Give my children a spirit of power, of love & of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

“My children will know the love that surpasses knowledge-filled to the measure with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

This year I pray our kids would know God’s love and share God’s love. His love is what our world needs. It’s what we need. Have a great “back to school” day!

Like most moms, I have spent this weekend loving on my kids a little more. Their sweet little faces have been cradled in my hands and I just can’t stop the hugs and kisses from pouring out.

 I went upstairs last night to tuck in my oldest son. The lights were out and I was trying to contain the emotions that were bubbling at the surface. My son asked me, “Mommy, did you just get out of the shower? Your face is all wet.” And suddenly the tears that I had been trying so hard to keep at bay came rushing out.  I shared with him the tragic events that took place in Connecticut on Friday morning. I tried to explain it in a way that a 9-year old mind could comprehend. But I found the task daunting as my own 35-year old mind struggles to make sense of it all.

He had some questions and he also had some fears. I spent a little longer than usual on “tuck in time” this particular night. Tickling his back. Thanking God for his life. And then choking back tears as a picture of one of the little boys whose life was taken flashed through my mind.

I was getting ready for church this morning and I turned the news on for a bit. The nightmare that played itself out in real life came crashing into my home, into my heart again.

So it was that I found my heart heavy and weary, much like my physical body, as I lumbered my way into church this morning. I was feeling overwhelmed by the sadness, the darkness, the loss.

But somewhere between a hug from one of my 3rd grade girls and the beginning of our kid’s worship service, my heart began to swell with an emotion that had been hiding out for the last two days. Hope.

The kids started worshipping God. They were singing, laughing, jumping. And the joy on their faces started to match the hope in my heart. The upbeat song turned to a slower one and their little heads began to bow. All around the room their small hands started popping up, raised high in the air. And it struck me so hard, so fast that it nearly took my breath away. For a moment I was overcome with such a deep and amazing sense of hope that it quite honestly seemed to fly in the face of reason. But hope, true hope, the kind we find in the finished work of Christ on the cross, does exactly that. It flies in the face of reason. Even amidst terrible tragedy and senseless loss, in our darkest hour, in God, there is hope.

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

As I was watching the kids worship God I was struck with a determination to do my part to be a light in this world. I was determined to encourage these kids to be a light in their homes, in their schools and in their communities. Because after all the discussions have been had regarding gun control, mental illness and school security measures, there will still be one factor that remains. We live in a broken world. A fallen world. Darkness. And the only way to fight darkness is with light.

In the days and weeks that come my heart & prayers will be with those families, friends and community that lost so much. I will be praying that the Holy Spirit would comfort them as only he can. I will be praying for our nation & our leaders that God would inspire them with divine wisdom. But I will also do my part, in my own little sliver of this world, to let my light shine. I will realize the importance of my role. I will take some responsibility for the lives that I come in contact with. I will encourage my own children, yes, but I will also encourage my neighbor kids, the lives at the preschool where I work, the quiet little girl who comes to kids church and sits in the back by herself. I will do my best to show them how to let their light shine.

The kids sing a song in kid’s church with some pretty powerful lyrics. You should hear them belt out “Let Your Light Shine.” They sing with such passion and trust. Sometimes we as adults can learn more in a few minutes of worshipping with kids than we can over hours worth of “grown up” discussions. Today was one of those days for me.

Let Your Light Shine

Just gave myself a “time out” from my middle child. My adorable, high energy, too smart for his own britches, strong willed child.  As I’m writing this the tears are falling onto my laptop because, well, I just can’t seem to stop them today.

Parenting is the toughest job you’ll ever have. That’s what everyone always says. What they don’t say is that by “toughest” they mean the most exhausting and exhilarating job you’ll ever have.  And usually both at the same time. They don’t say that you’ll learn more about yourself than you ever really cared to. But you will. Because truth be told, one of the things that makes parenting so hard is the ability it has to expose us as parents. The ability to bring to light our own areas of weakness, our own selfish motives, our own bad attitudes.

When I’m disciplining my son for a shortcoming I see in his behavior or character and I sense a check in my spirit that it’s something I still need to work on myself, I become exposed. When we’re working on anger issues with our children and we find ourselves wanting to punch something hard or scream with frustration, we are exposed. When we’re helping our children learn about forgiveness and we are reminded of someone we need to forgive, again, exposed.

And sometimes being exposed ourselves, in the midst of everything else life is throwing at us, feels a bit overwhelming. But we have this promise, this hope.

“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning! How great your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22

I am so thankful for fresh starts, new beginnings, even if it’s just the beginning of a new day.  Sometimes all we need is just the knowledge that we get to start again “fresh” tomorrow.

Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

I am thankful that I serve a God who can cleanse my heart & set me right again, can renew a right spirit within me. As quickly as I ask, he can answer.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B001J1O8C0″ alt=”Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932)” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51adVjBYGfL.jpg” align=”left” width=”360″ height=”500″]And I have to guess that my kids are probably just as happy about getting “fresh starts” as I am. Because our kids are human too, and so they have their “off” days like the rest of us. The great thing about kids is their ability to bounce back. They can have a really pretty rotten day and then the next morning wake up all sweet and obedient.  And though at times I refer to this as their “Jekyll & Hyde” syndrome, most days I wish I was more like that.  Able to just let go of the past and ready to move on and embrace the future, with nothing weighing me down.  So, as I journey on in my parenting I find that my kids are constantly teaching me something. Funny, because I thought I was the one who was supposed to be teaching them. But I guess the truth is, we’re teaching each other.  It’s a learning process that oscillates between child and parent.

And ultimately, my goal is to give them the tools that I use myself when I am in need of a time out. I want to show them scriptures like the ones mentioned earlier. To explain the promises, the hope, the power we have in Christ. I want them to know, in the very depths of their souls, that God’s love couldn’t have run out on them, that his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. Because he is faithful, and his mercies are new every morning!