It is that time of year. Back to school. For some it means kindergarten. For others it means their first time in college, or their senior year.

 

The teachers have already been working. They have had endless meetings. They have spent hours preparing their classroom. Classrooms they will change after the first day. In the kindergarten and first grade it means the first week of school is all about learning the rules. For the first-year college student it means looking like a deer in the headlights. For the senior it means, “Yippee my last year of high school!”

 

Back to school - There is something about the first day of school and the new school year. Like it or not, our lives seem to be regulated by the school year. Lives seem to normalize. The summer has been spent in vacation. Sleeping in late. No living by the clock. But when school begins all that becomes scheduled. Most people like routine, and school gives us routine. Summer is nice for a while, but just a while. So as we settle back into the routine of school, remember a few things.

 

We must remember Who we serve. We are not servants of homework. We are not servants of the band schedule. We are not servants of the football season. All of those are good, but they are not God. There will be choices to make. Somewhere in the school year the choice will be made between extra-curricular actives and serving God. Notice, I did not say a choice about attendance at “church.” But, there will be a choice about whether or not we serve God. A choice about who will be our God.

 

Next, we must remember our values. “Buy the truth and sell it not” is about what we value. Value honor. Don’t sell honor for any price. Value purity. Don’t sell yourself for cheap thrills. Value excellence. Do not become lazy. Do not procrastinate. Value your time. Use it wisely. Routine is good, but it also has a way of lulling us to sleep. We can become so fixed in our daily routines that we overlook who we are to grow up to be. We just go along in neutral and never look up. It is comfortable. It is easy. But fight against the daily grind. Stay fresh.

 

Also, remember that to grow spiritually means there must be communication. God communicates to us through His word. We communicate with God through our prayers. We need God’s word to feed us. His word will make us strong and enable us to stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. We need to communicate to God so that we can give Him our cares. We pray to Him, sharing the anxieties of our heart. We need to lean on Him for guidance. If either side of that communication is missing, we will become weak.

 

So back to school makes the year meaningful. Remember our spiritual life needs educating, too.

 

Rickie