(Featured image pc: Chelsea Jane Photography)

Today as I am writing this, I have enjoyed seeing many first day of school posts on social media, and have those bittersweet feelings of nostalgia since our children have been out of school for a few years now. We homeschooled until middle school/ high school years, and then sent our children off to our church school where they finished their official school years. They have also had Bible College, online college, and other college courses to learn more about their possible career interests, but it has been awhile since we have been part of the “first day back to school” excitement. But while we are in a different season, “going back to school” still affects us in various ways.

With the start of school in the fall, other routines and schedules are put back in place as the freedoms of summer fade away, and almost seems like a fresh start similar to New Year’s every year. We start to realize the year is slipping away and any goals we still want to accomplish need to be revaluated and either discarded or increased efforts and discipline given to them. Our church also resumes certain programs in the fall, including our midweek services and AWANA, as well as other events now that everyone is back from vacations and such. And on the farm, we will soon be making our last harvest rounds and getting busy preparing for winter.

On a personal note, our connection to the actual “school” part of fall has changed from students/ parents to other responsibilities related to education (sometimes part of or in addition to our “regular” work)– my husband does chapel monthly at our church school and begins teaching our church instruction class during Sunday School on Sundays, our daughter helps sub- teach Sunday School preschoolers, does a lot of early childhood education with her babysitting, plus teaches piano, we have done some volunteering, and I am also involved with some sub- teaching and tutoring– all things we are enjoying being part of! This is actually an interesting turn in life as I actually trained and worked first as an LPN and then as an RN for several years before having children, thinking that I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher! But it happens in such a variety of ways, and it seems like teaching takes place in every area of life. So, we are still “in it,” but not in the same way as when you are either homeschooling or seeing your children off each day.

However, I think we are all “back to school” every day! So many life lessons we don’t really take into account as continuing education, but there is always more to learn! It makes me smile to think how years ago I had an uncle I saw most days as our families farmed together, who would ask me almost every evening at milking time what I had learned in school that day! Mostly I didn’t have answer as it can be hard to think of specific things learned or accomplished, but thankfully it was happening anyway! Many days we learn new things we don’t even realize, as we go about our daily lives and take advantage of opportunities and interact with others along the way.

Sometimes we make more intentional efforts in specific areas. This past summer I took part in an Emotional Freedom Webinar which was so helpful for me especially with processing my personal grief journey. Also, in our household different ones of us listen to different podcasts and do a lot of reading for various topics that affect us. (Some examples– marriage, parenting/ childcare, leadership, finances, natural health and nutrition, car detailing, making YouTube videos, and other things that we are interested in improving and gaining knowledge in). One of my goals lately is to be more intentional about reading actual books! We get used to “bite sized” or “snack portions” off the internet, but focusing on reading good, uplifting books by solid Christian authors is a good discipline– to say nothing of taking daily time in God’s Word.

This fall our midweek service and Sunday School times are good places to learn and discuss topics in addition to the regular Sunday morning message. We need a hunger to grow spiritually as well as in other areas of life. While we live in a day and age where we are constantly bombarded by information and different forms of media, it seems we often lack the desire and time to focus on things that should be priority, and especially that have eternal consequences.

So as we are all caught up in the back to school frenzy, let’s remember we are all teachers and we are all students! There are those who have gone before us that we look to for their wisdom and experience, seeking them out as mentors, and those who are coming after us and learning from our examples even more than what we would intentionally teach. And there are some who walk beside us, encouraging us as we learn and grow together as well. Just because we are no longer in formal education does not mean we aren’t responsible to learn and grow in whatever ways we have available to us!

Happy Fall and Back to School!

Proverbs 9:9 “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.”