The Secret to a Great School Year
Our kids are about to head back to school. The main reason I’m excited about this is the possibility that somehow my grocery bill might ease a little bit. Trips to the grocery store have become frightening. Given that my oldest children will be out of the house for a large part of the day, surely they will consume less food. No, probably not.
One of the things I least like about the start of school is the insane busyness that begins. I’m sure my family is not unique in this. When our lives are filled with activity, spiritual priorities receive less attention. It’s not that we want this to be the case but all kinds of other things, most of them good things, scream for our attention. What do you do? Just give up? Sometimes that seems easier than fighting the current.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 gives me some helpful guidance:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Families in ancient Israel didn’t have soccer practice and dance competitions and social media screaming for attention, but that doesn’t mean that the ancient world was somehow more accommodating to faith. Lived faith has always taken intentionality and effort, and that is even more true today. Deuteronomy 6 reminds us that the Word of God is the key to the growth of our faith and even our love for God. What we need to do as families is find a way to make the Word of God a regular rhythm in our lives.
That’s one reason consistent church attendance matters. No, one weekend away won’t cause your children to cease loving God, but when the regular rhythm of your life for whole seasons omits church, our choices actually communicate something about what is important. Our children do pay attention to these lessons. Church is more of a weekly rhythm but Deuteronomy 6 also gives us the picture of a daily rhythm.
How do we include God’s Word in our daily life as a family? Deuteronomy 6 gives us a clue: “When you sit….when you walk…when you rise” (6:7). Deuteronomy is telling us that in what we do habitually to make God’s Word part of the habit. It could be that we talk about a verse that we are thinking about lately. It could be that we discuss a sermon we heard recently. It could be that we reflect on a question that finds an answer in Scripture. It could be that we ask one another: “What has God been teaching you lately?” The first time you do some of these things will feel awkward. What’s more awkward is to only speak of these things at church as if the rest of our lives don’t have anything to do with the things of God. Just look for ways to bring God’s Word into your family life and before you know it, it will be just another habit that you have as a family.
I’m praying for you. As school starts let me know if there’s anything I can be praying for you about in particular!