{"id":856,"date":"2017-08-19T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/back-to-school-routines\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:10:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:10:36","slug":"back-to-school-routines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=856","title":{"rendered":"Back to School Routines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When my community was buying school supplies for children in need, I joined in with them — buying spiral notebooks, crayons, binders, pencils, pens, notebook paper, glue, and other school supplies. It brought back memories of buying school supplies for my own two kiddos — backpacks, lunch kits, and all the essentials from the school\u2019s list of supplies. Please indulge me once again, with one of my favorite photos of a new school year for them when we lived at Lake Keystone, Oklahoma. Actually, it was Staci\u2019s first year of school<\/p>\n

Here we are with the lazy days of summer almost over. The Fall school routine is well underway for my Frisco grandchildren and next week, the Austin two will begin their routines. Soon they\u2019ll all be in the swing of things with their new courses and loads of homework. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the best advice I can offer from a \u201cNana\u2019s\u201d point of view. We can either worry about what this school year holds or we can follow the lead of Mary and Joseph in the Gospel of Luke 2. Four areas are mentioned that Jesus grew in as a young boy: \u201cAnd Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with man (people).\u201d Our Lord grew wiser each year. He physically grew. His relationship with His Heavenly Father continually strengthened. Jesus even gained favor with people who saw Him day to day.<\/p>\n

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The verse that precedes Jesus growth in Luke 2:51 is this one: \u201cHis mother kept all these things in her heart.\u201d When Mary was mothering Jesus, she tucked thoughts (some Bible translations say she \u201ctreasured\u201d them) of her son safely in her heart. In none of those descriptions do we see Mary fretting, worried and anxious. She pondered about her son and his growth, but she didn\u2019t allow her mama heart to ever become rattled.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so pleased that my kids follow Joseph and Mary\u2019s lead by instructing and instilling in their kids those things that will increase them in wisdom and favor. Early yesterday morning, I went over to their home for morning devotion (one of their \u201cmust-do\u2019s\u201d before heading out to school). They take 30 minutes to an hour each morning to pour God\u2019s word into their hearts. Words that talk about honor, integrity, doing the right things, praying, trusting God, being a friend, etc. <\/p>\n

I can hear some of you saying \u201cWe don\u2019t have that much time in the mornings!\u201d Then take 5 minutes to speak affirmation, God\u2019s love and \u201cI can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength\u201d motivation into them, and then pray with them for wisdom and favor. School mornings can be quite hectic but there is nothing more important than starting each day with putting God first. When He gets first place, then He promises to make their paths straight. \u201cSeek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.\u201d Matthew 6:33. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a new season at the Wallace\u2019s as Payton is driving now, so he and Alexia headed out the door for school on their own. That\u2019s enough reason to have a little extra anxiety. But, no matter whether it\u2019s their first year of school or, in Payton\u2019s case, his Senior year of school, we can turn all our anxieties that we have for our children into treasured prayers for their safety and know they are being held fast by our loving Father \u2014 the One who knows our hearts and loves our children even more than we do.<\/p>\n

When we turn our concerns into prayers, we create space in our hearts to treasure and ponder like Mary did. During those times when God is teaching our kids \u2013 whether it\u2019s in arithmetic or obedience or establishing friendships, let\u2019s realize that we parents and grandparents are also learning beautiful lessons of trusting and treasuring \u2013 completely confident that God is always in control and FATHER KNOWS BEST for our children AND us! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my community was buying school supplies for children in need, I joined in with them — buying spiral notebooks, crayons, binders, pencils, pens, notebook paper, glue, and other school supplies. It brought back memories of buying school supplies for my own two kiddos — backpacks, lunch kits, and all the essentials from the school\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1891,5091,5092,5093,5094,4201,1899,5095,5096,5097],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-back-to-school","tag-jesus-increased-in-wisdom","tag-lazy-days-of-summer","tag-luke-2","tag-luke-251","tag-mary-and-joseph","tag-pondered","tag-school-supplies","tag-school-year","tag-treasured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7197,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/7197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}