As a homeschooler, my first-day-back-to-school pictures were pretty lame.
You could also just call them “pictures” because they were of me . . . in our house . . . with a book . . . which was really no different than any other picture taken of me between the ages of about 6 and 20.
So when I see Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and blogs filled to overflowing with pictures of happy kids and shiny backpacks and yawning bus drivers, I don’t get overly sentimental.
Ok, so maybe I miss my Lisa Frank notebooks and my maroon Trapper Keeper. Don’t judge.
But it does make me wonder: What if we got as excited about Sunday School as we do about starting third grade?
What if our parents made their kids learn their catechisms with as much vigor as they make them practice basketball or soccer?
What if our kids got as excited about getting their first hymnal as they do about getting new pencils and rulers?
What if we posted videos of our kids saying the commandments by heart as often as we post videos of them rounding third base?
What if Mom and Pop bragged about their kids’ love of Scripture as much as they talk about their scholarships?
What if we asked our kids about their church and Bible study attendance while they’re in college as often as we ask if they’re eating their fruits and vegetables?
What if our pastors and deaconesses and other church workers got as much support from moms and dads as teachers and coaches?
What if parents made sure their kids were at the Divine Service and Sunday School and youth group as often as they are at band practice or math camp?
Well, ding dang.
Now THAT would be something worth flooding social media with.
Heading back to school – whether it’s private school, homeschooling, public school {My parents sent me to all three. Come to think of it, I was either a rowdier child than I remember or they just couldn’t make up their minds.} or a classical ed school or some crazy combination of all the different kinds of schooling available – is exciting.
But being a lifelong learner of God’s Word is better still, worthy of more pictures and exclamation points and joy than any over priced Frozen backpack or new box of crayons with colors like eye-booger-green.
So let’s expect just as much of our kids’ theological education in church and in the home as we do in school . . . even more. This year, as school starts, let’s get out our math textbooks and our maps, but more importantly, let’s imprint the Word of God on our very hearts by spending time in our Bibles, our catechisms and our hymnals.
And our Trapper Keepers.
And maybe our Lisa Frank notebooks.
Just speaking for, you know, a friend.
letitstet.com 
Wonderfully stated. My husband rants about this kind of stuff in the privacy of our own home all the time! I think I’ll take a bunch of “first day of Sunday School” pictures…and post them.
Thanks for the strong and apt reminders. I know parents are busy these days. Perhaps even busier than my wife and I were chasing soccer balls and preparing my highly-valued and much- traded PB&J sandwiches. We were the first generation of Christian parents in a long time in our family so we bumped and fizzled as we went along–not having the strong doctrinal formation of LCMS folks to rely on — and our boys, by God’s grace are stellar. But I think the real issue in generating that enthusiasm ( I know that is a suspect word for Lutherans) is the hearts and minds of mom and dad.
Not to put more pressure on the folks but when and if kids see the life and joy of the Lord pulsing through their moms and dads, that “sets the table” in ways that cannot be matched otherwise. I only wish I had had the resources that I now enjoy. And by resources I mean things like sacraments, history, confessions and even my Luther and Katy bobbleheads. They still make our twenty-something boys laugh.
Come Holy Spirit and kindle the fire of your love … in our kids surely. But set mom and dad on fire long before. Amen.
What you said. X 2!
I kept my Lisa Frank notebooks and my purple Trapper Keeper in my plain old K-Mart backpack and my little orange Gideon’s Bible in my fannie pack. I think it was high school by the time I could finally part with my Popples sheets.
One of my before-I-die-dreams is to participate in a Divine Service where we all speak the Introit and sing “This is the Feast” with the same gusto that we cheer for the pee-wee basketball game. I would also love to, at least once, ditch the pew and dance in the aisles, but that just might have to wait until Heaven.
I tell my kids every year on the first day of school, probably should tell them every day:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.”
I never had a fannie pack, but I’d love to belt out “This Is the Feast” with you next time we’re at a random camp with a bunch of other women in Illinois. 🙂