This week, the schools start up again after the summer holiday. That is a big thing. For the school, for the parents, for the children.
For the school, it is the moment of truth for a lot of things. Are all teacher’s positions filled? Or are some classes without teachers? Are there sufficient pupils to attend the school, or does the school have to shrink, lay off people, send teachers away? Are the teachers up to the task? Will some teachers have difficulty to manage the class full of young talent and challenges?
For many parents it is a moment of relief. Kids back to a regular rhythm again, parents have more freedom to maneuver, you don’t have to occupy the kids all the time. Some parents feel like flying the flag when school starts again. But at the same time, there might be some anxiety; can my kid do it? Will my kid thrive or barely survive?
For children it can be a daunting experience to go back to school. Maybe they get to meet a bunch of new kids. The ‘power-balance’ in the pecking order might have changed over the summer. The school expects more of their attention span and ability to learn as they get older. Especially the kids that are going to school for the first time are thrown into an entire new and daunting experience.
I still remember one incident when I went back to school after the summer holiday. I knew the female teacher already, and as a kid of 6 years old, I had picked a bunch of wildflowers for her. A beautiful bunch of buttercups, clover, dandelions and such. I had rolled the bunch in a newspaper and was on my way to school for a 15-minute walk, by myself. That’s how it was done in those times.
When I was close to school, I turned around the newspaper to look at the bunch of wildflowers that I was going to hand over to the teacher. All I had in my hands was an empty newspaper. The flowers had dropped out somewhere along the way and I hadn’t noticed. It was too late to run back and find the flowers. So, I threw the empty newspaper away and gone was my grand entrance back into a new school year to arrange a good footing with the teacher. I still remember how ashamed I felt.
A new school year: anxiety all around, on all sides.
Here is an encouragement for all teachers, parents and children: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Note that it doesn’t say: “Put all your anxiety on him”, or “Bring all your anxiety to him”. It is a much stronger statement. When you CAST your anxiety on Jesus, you hurl it to him with a big thrust. If you don’t put some ‘umph’ into it, the danger is that you will hold on to it anyways, because anxiety has a sticky substance to it. Only people that cast it away, will get rid of it.
That doesn’t only apply to teachers, parents and school kids. It also applies to managers, employees, nurses, scientists, marketeers, researchers, statisticians, and all other people.
Don’t keep on walking around with your anxiety. Cast, hurl, throw it unto Jesus, because he cares for you.