Back To School

Even though the official start of the New Year is January 1, the beginning of September, more specifically after Labour Day weekend, always seems like more of a time of new beginning than the actual New Year is.

The summer months are a time of more vacations, lots of special outings, events and parties, the kids are out of school and life just seems to go at a totally different pace. Not to mention when you live in a place like Windsor that actually experiences all 4 seasons, summer is certainly the season most conducive to lots of extra activity.

But then comes labour day weekend, that 1st weekend of September that seemed a million days a way when summer began, but now all too soon it’s upon us again.

The days are already getting noticeably shorter, the nights are cooler, and the carefree summer schedule of all the kids is about to change, and the routine and grind of another school year is here.

On top of that, schedules for work, childcare, transportation, and activities all change and everything returns to what will now be the norm for another 9-10 months.

To me all of this is way more change than watching a ball drop and flipping the calendar page from December to January, I think we should petition to have the New Year officially begin with Labour Day each year.

With all of this going on and all of the change and readjustment taking place it seems like a good time to also do a spiritual check-up and make sure that our spiritual schedule and routine is in good working order too.

I don’t have to tell you that one of my biggest things to talk about is your personal devotion and prayer time with God, you all know too well how I feel about that and that I strongly believe it’s the root system and backbone of our faith.

I don’t have to tell you that this is something you need to have as the number 1 priority in your life, you’ve heard me share about it many times and I’m sure you will hear many more.

But what I do know is that with the reality of summer schedule changes and vacations often times people’s routine of time with God changes too, and for some just that little adjustment in the summer is enough to throw off your whole schedule and suddenly your time with God goes missing from your life.

Back to school time is not only a time for our kids to get to work and get back to school, but it’s also a good time for us as grown ups to get back to work on our spiritual growth and devotion too.

If you’ve let your personal time with God slide during the summer months for whatever reason, there is no better time than now to get back into a new routine while other new routines in life are changing and forming too.

You need to make sure that your time with God each day is just as important as making kids lunches and scheduling who is going to pick up who and get them where.

Oh it may not seem like something that is on the same level of importance scale as soccer practice or parent council at school, but trust me, if you don’t schedule your time with God, it’s not likely going to happen. And if over the summer you have let your daily time with Him slip away then you know that what I am saying is right.

This Fall as we send our kids back to school to study and get educated we too need to get back into our own routine if you have let it slide over the summer. We need to study too; we need to daily be renewed and refreshed by God so that we can be the people God wants us to be.

So as the official summer break comes to a close I pray that we will all take this message to heart and remember again the importance of spending quality scheduled time with God in prayer and scripture each day.