Be Encouraged for Back-to-School!
The start of the school season is here. That time of year when kids wish that summer lasted a few more weeks, and mom’s wish their babies weren’t growing up so fast. When teachers stress (or so I’m told) about getting their rooms ready, organized, and situated and fall sport coaches get geared up for practices to begin. And our American way of life gets its schedule back.
Personally, I haven’t been this excited about a school year, well… maybe ever. I’m actually pumped for school to start. I can’t wait to welcome my students to my classroom for the first time! I will begin teaching middle school and high school theology, having a total of seven classes per day. It’s going to be a rollercoaster schedule, but I’m really excited about it. I’m teaching 6th-10th grades, and 2 electives which I hope to highlight more in the future. “Faith & Action” for 7th-9th graders and “Faith & Strength” for 11th-12th. These classes are going to be amazing. I have the honor and pleasure of helping to form these young minds and souls in the truths of Christ Jesus! What better honor could their be?!
Whatever you’re feeling in regards to back-to-school, here’s a few things to keep in mind:
FOR KIDS: School is about more than grades, gossip, and gross cafeteria food. Embrace school, and all the trials that come along with it, to help build you into the person God is calling you to be. Set goals for yourself for what you’d like to achieve this year – whether they be academic, athletic, extra-curricular, or a mix of all of them. Don’t take this time in your life for granted… soak it up, enjoy it, and live each day to the fullest. I challenge you to be pro-active (don’t procrastinate!) with your homework, set your priorities straight, and to be determined to always be a positive influence in your school. Be a heroicly virtuous leader among your peers!
FOR PARENTS: You have the power to shape the “mental game” of your child! If you help them to see things correctly, to properly order their day, to set them up for success… they will be all the better for it! Ask your child questions, engage them in what’s going on in school (don’t forget about the social aspect – so many parents don’t have a clue) and help them to set goals. I like the idea of monthly, quarterly, and semester goal-setting. (We’ll be goal-setting in my classes.) Outlaw the lame, but ever so popular, question “How was school today?” Instead, ask them engaging questions like: 1. What was the most important thing you said today? 2. How were you a leader at school today? (Notice that I don’t leave room for “I wasn’t a leader.” Expect your child to execute leadership! Learning their leadership style, possibly through their temperament, would be a great exercise.) 3. What did you do today to help you achieve your goals? 4. What mistakes did you make today and how will you make sure you don’t make them again? (And so on. Choose one or two a day, don’t feel like you need to ask them all every day. Come up with your own.) Even small children can have conversations about these concepts, and it’s much more effective than one-word responses and helps teach children valuable communication skills. In our house, we also go around the table, asking everyone these two questions: 1. What was your favorite part of the day? 2. How did you make the choice to love today? GREAT for conversations!
A word to the dads: Dads, if you’re not actively involved in the schooling process of your children, make a “new school year” resolution and become involved. An easy way to engage is to make sure that your family has dinner together every night and that you ask some of those important questions at that time. I know there are a million and one excuses about why dinner doesn’t happen as a family, but it’s super important to “break bread” together. Lead the conversation, get to know the inner workings of your kid’s brain, and build the trust with them that you expect should be there. It doesn’t just happen on its own – you have to work at it and earn it from them. When you do, you’ll be effective in speaking into their lives – possibly the single most important thing you can do! Go Dads!
May God bless your school year, your school, your teachers and coaches, and most imporantly, our children.
TrueMan up!
The Ultimate Goal
I wrote this article at the beginning of 2011 around the time of Super Bowl XLV for iibloom.com. Now, as the NFL regular season, NCAA FB regular season and MLB postseason, comes near, it is a good reminder of our ultimate goal. Hope you enjoy.
For professional athletes, the goal of their career is to become a champion. For players in the National Football League, the Super Bowl is the goal. To hold the Vince Lombardi Trophy and forever go down in history as a champion. To wear an incredibly large, diamond-encrusted ring. To have “Super Bowl Champion” added to your name. But how does one become a Super Bowl champion?
For most, the road to the Super Bowl is a long one. Most have played football since their adolescence and made their way through the ranks playing pee wee football, middle school, high school and college football. Some even had stints in arena football, foreign leagues and on semi-professional teams. They have devoted themselves to countless practices, to weight lifting, running, learning, watching game tape, team work and being coached. They have put in endless hours getting better at what they do. They never give up, striving for perfection.
Now, as the players from the two teams heading to Super Bowl XLV prepare for the biggest game of their careers, their “football past” comes to a head. All of the hard work, the determination, the commitment, the struggle…will it pay off? Will they be rewarded for their work? Only one team, the players, coaches and personnel, will be crowned champions.
Let us now correlate this to our own lives and more specifically, our spiritual lives. If we want to attain the goal, which should always be Heaven, we must put in even more work than professional athletes. Unlike the teams in the Super Bowl, we all have the chance to be crowned! We must, each and every day, place our priority on our spiritual well-being. We can look to the example of these athletes, much like St. Paul wrote in the Scriptures, “compete so as to win.” The example that athletes give us, as to how commitment and endurance can pay off, is a great example to follow. However, instead of being committed to physical practices, weight lifting, running and watching game tape, we should be committed to the Sacraments, to prayer, to spiritual reading, to personal growth in virtue and so on. For us, our hard work is not for the temporal world. Our hard work is not for a perishable crown, a trophy, a diamond-encrusted ring, or history books. Our hard work will be the reward of eternal salvation with God the Father in Heaven.
It seems to me that the hardest thing in life (my “game” situation) is that I allow all the little stuff to prevent me from giving it my all, and I get side tracked from the priority of competing with excellence and I fail to train like I used to when I was an athlete. I sort of “let life happen to me” instead of living life. I think about this a lot and constantly have to remind myself to be diligent in my spiritual training. If only I gave my spiritual training the same effort I used to give my athletic training, maybe then I’d reach my ultimate goal.
