Luke Scallon
Pastor, Faith Baptist Church of Danville

Published in The Des Moines County News on September 1, 2016.

It’s an exciting time as kids start back to school and adjust to new schedules.  I know I’m pretty pumped to have my oldest now in kindergarten and ready to face a whole variety of new experiences, exciting and challenging, and I’m already seeing a burst of him accelerating in growing up!

School is a different experience.  There is much that will shape my child, and plenty that is out of my control.  I deeply appreciate the teachers that we entrust our children to through the week.  On the other hand, children can be quite cruel.  There is only so much that you can protect your child, but then you must send them off to fend for themselves.  One day, he may come home excited to have a new friend… but someday, he might come home with a broken heart, having been made fun of by other kids.

What would you do?  Should we helplessly stand by, or should we storm the school doors like tyrants?  There is a time we may need to carefully step in; I wouldn’t stand by while my son’s esteem is continually shattered.  However, the vulnerability that children face at school is a key part of their development of necessary life skills.  My desire is to prepare my children adequately, and send them to school as a training ground for those life skills.  We want our children to be strong leaders.

We want them to be academically strong.  We work with them consistently!  Their young minds have such a great capacity, and when they practice academics, they are also learning to think for themselves.  That’s why we love to read with them, sing with them, count with them, ask them challenging questions, and reinforce what they’ve been learning at school.

We want them to be emotionally strong.  We invest time in them to show them they matter.  We listen to them.  We teach them that it’s ok to be happy, sad, or even angry… but there are acceptable ways to express those emotions.  We encourage them not to give up when things get hard, and we cheer them on when they fail but keep trying.

We want them to be socially strong.  We teach them to care about each other and not exclude each other.  We challenge them to think about others’ feelings and needs.  We train them to apologize and ask forgiveness when they hurt others.

“We love because [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  Admittedly, it’s a process to teach our children to do this.  But God gives us our children for the first 18 years of their lives to be faithful stewards and build a healthy foundation.  The school can’t do it all; it’s our job as parents.  We must teach them God’s love by showing it to them and teaching them to love others.

What do you want for your children?