Trusting God in the Back-To-School Season

How should I feel about my kids returning to school?

I don’t know what comes to mind when you think “back to school.” Maybe it’s a demolished school supplies aisle at Walmart, a smattering of scheduling conflicts, a certain student in your child’s grade that you’ve been silently hoping doesn’t return this year. Whatever comes to mind — whether it be excitement, nerves, jitters, or busyness — I want to invite you to a moment of surrender. We often think of surrendering first on Sundays or when the going gets really rough. I’d like to suggest to you that the very best time to surrender something is at the start. Before the traffic turns horrendous. Before the lunch box gets left at home. Before the kids start to bully one another. Before your child gets upset. Before the teacher calls with bad news. Before the 1:00 am project that “you gave little to no help with.”

Now is the time to consider the daunting, jam-packed, and difficult days ahead and surrender yourself to God. The days ahead belong to God already. The children we raise are God’s already. The classrooms are God’s. The teachers were placed by God and even the cars that were stuck in traffic! 

Surrender means yielding to God what already belongs to Him. We do not own our kids and neither can we control all the moments of their lives, yet we can trust that God “Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.…in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25-28). We make a prediction of which days will be more emotional than others or which days the whole family will erupt before dinner is even planned, but we can “entrust our souls to a faithful Creator” and look to Him as our example (1 Peter 4:19).

In the busy school season ahead, we have an opportunity to model for our kids an attitude that believes that (1) God is in complete control, (2) He is always inviting our hearts to intimacy, and (3) He intends to bring Himself glory in all things. 

So what are some ways that we can surrender the school year to God and help our children follow suit? 

#1: God is in complete control.

Don’t make promises that you can’t keep, but rather remind your kids of the One that keeps every promise He makes. Instead of promising better and brighter days or best friends at first sight, verbally remind your children that God will never leave us, and God will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). 

Perhaps you are tempted to manipulate circumstances to secure a positive outcome for a child who struggles. When we try to fix our kids’ problems for them, however, we miss out on an opportunity to point them to Jesus. Instead of taking over for them, share with them that “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and that He is the Good Shepherd who came that we might have life (John 10:10-11).

We can show our kids that God is in complete control, not by manipulating all the factors of their lives, but by surrendering that which is most precious to us: our kids themselves. They can sense if we are holding on too tightly to them and allowing fear to dominate our lives. When we act in fear, we aren’t truly protecting them at all, and sometimes we may even be teaching them not to trust God’s heart, timing, and complete providence. 

#2: God is always inviting our hearts to intimacy.

At all times and in every place, God is drawing His people into further communion with Himself through Jesus Christ. He is the Vine and we are the branches, so that in every way Christ can show us that He is our life, strength, and happiness.

In John 15, Jesus invites us to, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.” Later, He tells us that he has spoken these words so that “His joy might be in us & that our joy may be full.” Christ’s invitation to intimacy means that there is no classroom, lunch table, science lab, or ringing of the bell where God is not pursuing our kids in love & inviting them to love Him in return. 

Our kids know (above anyone else, I daresay!) if we are remaining in the Vine. If we are, our lives will be marked by joy, faith-filled prayers, and love for others! This kind of intimacy and life lived in God’s presence demonstrates to our children that there is more to life than good grades, good looks, or good energy.

Parents, I believe that one of the most important things you and I can do is cultivate calm moments where our kids can stop and reflect on God’s love and invitation to intimacy. We can’t let life swallow them up and distract them from God’s love — for life’s greatest joy is being loved by and loving God alone! 

#3: God intends to bring Himself glory in every season.

Ever since the Garden, humans have been telling themselves this lie: life is all about me. From toddlers fighting over Cheerios at daycare, to middle schoolers bragging about the best high scores, to teens competing to find a girlfriend in the first week of classes, we all crave attention, pleasure, glory, and our own happiness. None of those things are wrong, except when they are sought outside of and in competition to the attention, pleasure, glory and happiness of God.

None of us naturally yields to God the glory that He deserves. We have a duty to remind our students that life is not in fact about them, nor about us or whatever else we may fill the blank with. Life is about bringing praise to God the Creator who has redeemed us to Himself through Jesus Christ. 

There is no better way to bring glory to God this school year than to surrender to His complete control, accept his ever open invitation to intimacy, and remind yourself and your children that this is His story. It’s all about Him!