Here in Australia, the last few weeks have marked the beginning of the new school year. There's a lot of change involved as kids get allocated new teachers, new classes and deal with the fact that not everything is the way it was last year or the way they would have chosen it. For kids starting kindergarten (as we call it in NSW), their whole world has been turned upside down. Suddenly they have to wear uniforms, navigate the playground with its big spaces and big kids, and sit up straight with their legs crossed for long periods of time. There has been a fair quantity of tears at the beginning of each day at our school from the littlest ones as they say goodbye and join the lines.
But it's not just the kids that get anxious. I think there's a fair amount of anxiety experienced by the mums too - certainly by me. We love our school, we're happy with our decision to send our kids there, but I still find it hard to leave them there each day after the long summer holidays. One of my kids struggles with change and finds the first few weeks hard; another has periodic struggles with friendships; and the one in kindergarten, well, she's quite happy to be there (actually she loves it), but she regularly lines up in the wrong place, can't find her friends in the playground and has nose bleeds and gets sent to the sick bay. I say goodbye to the three of them in the morning and come home and am tempted to worry.
Problem is, there really is no point in worry and Jesus tells me not to do it. It feels like my way of loving them to come home and fixate on all the things that could wrong on that particular day. But it's not really what God wants me to do. The Bible tells us to pray instead of worry, so I've been trying to spend more time in prayer for my kids during the day while they are off at school. I can hear the school bell from our house and I pray for them as they go out into the playground and back into the classroom again. I remind myself that God our Father loves them even more than me, that he is using the good and the bad experiences at school (which aren't that bad anyway, really) to make them more like Jesus. I thank him that in the area that really, really matters - whether they love Him - I have much to be thankful for.
It's not a magic antedote to worry, but what a blessing and relief to know that I can bring my worries about my children to my Father in Heaven - the one who is with them every day, watching over them and working in their lives.
But it's not just the kids that get anxious. I think there's a fair amount of anxiety experienced by the mums too - certainly by me. We love our school, we're happy with our decision to send our kids there, but I still find it hard to leave them there each day after the long summer holidays. One of my kids struggles with change and finds the first few weeks hard; another has periodic struggles with friendships; and the one in kindergarten, well, she's quite happy to be there (actually she loves it), but she regularly lines up in the wrong place, can't find her friends in the playground and has nose bleeds and gets sent to the sick bay. I say goodbye to the three of them in the morning and come home and am tempted to worry.
Problem is, there really is no point in worry and Jesus tells me not to do it. It feels like my way of loving them to come home and fixate on all the things that could wrong on that particular day. But it's not really what God wants me to do. The Bible tells us to pray instead of worry, so I've been trying to spend more time in prayer for my kids during the day while they are off at school. I can hear the school bell from our house and I pray for them as they go out into the playground and back into the classroom again. I remind myself that God our Father loves them even more than me, that he is using the good and the bad experiences at school (which aren't that bad anyway, really) to make them more like Jesus. I thank him that in the area that really, really matters - whether they love Him - I have much to be thankful for.
It's not a magic antedote to worry, but what a blessing and relief to know that I can bring my worries about my children to my Father in Heaven - the one who is with them every day, watching over them and working in their lives.
3 comments:
I really resonate with this Nicole - thanks so much for the reminder to pray rather than worry. I especially like your observation that God uses all the experiences they have (good or bad) for His good purposes. I find it so easy to want my kids to always have happy experiences but am reminded that it's often through the hard bits in our lives that God grows character, maturity and dependence on Him. I don't like seeing my kids anxious, hurt or upset but it often leads to great times of prayer together and pointing them to Jesus.
Oh, I loved the sentence, "It feels like my my way of loving them to come home and fixate on all the things that could wrong on that particular day." I understand that so well. But it's not really loving is it? It can't be when it's disobeying Jesus. How much we need our Heavenly Father to train us, even in our "loving". Thanks for that very helpful bit of perspective, Nicole.
Thanks for the reminder, Nicole :)
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