As a former elementary school teacher, August was the time of year when my shoulders started creeping back up again, I turned back into a pumpkin, and my mind started to wander to all the tasks at hand to get ready for the school year. Teaching is a hard profession, and if you don’t already know, the contracted forty hours of time, mostly spend in front of students, is not enough to write lesson plans, grade papers, and make a classroom feel like home. Honestly, it took a few years after teaching to remind myself that I didn’t need to get tense in August. Recently I asked a few students if they were excited to be heading back to school and their response was, “No! We want more summer!”
Heading back to school is both a joyous time of new beginnings and seeing friends again, but also the end of long summer days at the pool or a bonfire in the evening. What is often done at the church at the beginning of the school year is a back-to-school blessing. Writer and poet John O’Donohue says a
blessing bestows wholeness upon someone or something. As your church, we want to bestow wholeness upon you as students, teachers,
paraeducators, aids, school and district staff, and also your backpacks and workbags! Bring your backpack and workbags to worship on Sunday,
August 18th as we celebrate going back to school with a backpack blessing in worship at 9:30 am.
– Pastor Kristina
BACK-TO-SCHOOL BLESSING
by the Rev. Marilyn E. Thornton
Bless my paper and my pen.
Guide my spirit deep within.
Help me think and help me play,
This whole school year, day by day.
As I move from class to class,
Guide my footsteps; clear my path.
Keep my tongue to speak your words.
Let your will for me be heard.
In every subject high or low,
May God’s excellence be shown!
Keep me strong to reach the prize,
To grow in grace, becoming wise.
Whether far from home or near,
May I hold God’s precepts dear.
To do my best at every task;
For this blessing, I do ask.
Help my family be a part
As I lift my mind and heart.
As I study, work, and pray,
Be with them throughout the day.
Of whom much is given, much is required.
May learning be your greatest desire!