Now is the time for new beginnings.  It is the start of a new school year.  While the children are moaning as they prepare for their first day back, parents are praying that their children will have a wonderful school year.

My mother-in-law called tonight to tell both of my girls that this morning in church the preacher asked for the church to pray over the children’s book bags.  While we do not attend her church and my children’s book bags were not there for the service, she said that she imagined both of my daughter’s book bags in her mind.  Then, she prayed over their book bags just as the others were doing in the church.   This touched my heart!

As a parent, we do pray over our children.  We pray for their safety, we pray for them to have a good learning experience, and we pray for their teachers and friends as well.

My daughter has been driving for a year and a half now, but I still get anxious as she waves and we blow kisses at each other as she goes down our driveway.  She either calls or texts when she gets to her destination so that I know she has arrived safely.  This is for my reassurance, and she happily obliges so that I feel better.  I actually do sigh a big sigh of relief when I know she’s safe.

We talk before school, and even as I sit here writing this, she has been anxious this weekend.  It is her Senior year, and things have happened over the summer to where she feels as if she is going into this school year without any friends.  I have tried to encourage her that maybe everyone will be better on the first day of school, and hopefully, she’ll end up having a great start to her Senior year.  Regardless, though, she cannot control anyone else but herself.   I will be praying for her all throughout the day until I hear from her at the end of the school day when she’s gotten into her car and calls before she leaves the parking lot to let me know she is on her way home.

My youngest daughter has anxieties of her own as she goes into Fourth Grade.  She is afraid that the math will be harder this year, and I’m sure it will be but know that she can handle it, too.  She is one smart cookie!   She is also going to have an adjustment period as she has a new teacher this year.  At the small private school that she attends, she has pretty much known just about all of the teachers up to this point.  Now there is a new teacher in town assigned to her grade.  We met her at orientation Friday, and she seems really nice.  I know that Fourth Grade is also the grade where they are growing up more, which was already starring me in the face considering that she is almost ten years old!  But, the teacher even said that at orientation.  She is going to make them more accountable and more responsible this school year as she prepares them for the years to come.  Oh wow.  This has hit me like a ton of bricks!

My babies … are not … babies any more!

As we squeezed all of the fun we possibly could squeeze in on the last day before school starts, my younger daughter asked me to ride with her in the go-cart.  I agreed, and she set off around the house on her little course just as proud as ever.  We didn’t get very far before I started tearing up.  Yes, the go-cart ride made me cry!   That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?   How in the world is that even possible?  Because … I realized that life is going by so fast.  My older daughter will be 18 in January, and my younger daughter will be 10 in September.   I think of how I’m growing older, too, and as she rode me around on the go-cart all smiles, it tugged on my heart and I began to pray to God.  I asked that He please allow me to be here with my girls for a very long time to come.  I was silently pleading with Him to allow me to be here for my girls through all of the stages of their life.  I want to be an old, old woman sitting on my front porch rocking my great grand kids!   I want to bounce their babies on my knees and tell them all the stories about the “good ole days.”   I want to have more of these precious moments with my babies.  Please God, I begged … Please allow me more time with my girls.   I am tearing up now even writing this all out.   I just want more time.  I don’t want to think of ever leaving my girls, and it certainly wouldn’t be by choice.   I know that God hears me, and I just hope that He will grant my prayer so that I’m here for my babies.  I want to watch my oldest graduate from high school and college, and get married and have babies of her own.  I want the same exact thing with my youngest daughter.

I think of my grandma.  She was 84 when she passed away, but up until the last two years of her life she was healthy.   She was outside in the yard cutting her own grass and weeding her flower bed.  She had so much energy and stayed busy.  Then she got sick and was never the same again.  However, up to that point, though, she was an inspiration, and I told her that often.  She lived a long life, and she got to do exactly what I mentioned above – she had three children, and she got to see all three of them graduate and go on to have families of their own.  She got to rock her grandchildren, and she also got to hold her great grands in her arms also.  She watched them grow and savored every moment she had with them all.  I want that as well.  I pray that God will allow me to live well into my 80s and be healthy, too!

Now is a time for new beginnings for my babies as they start a new school year, and I thank God for all of the memories we made this summer.   I thank God that we’re all healthy and are getting off to a great start on the first day of the new year.   I’ll send my prayers with my girls as I always do, and I promise not to cry!

As Summer has come to an end, now is the time for new beginnings with the start of a new school year. Join Light Love Hope in praying for all of the children returning to school.

My grandma with my younger daughter at her K5 graduation.  We love and miss you, Grandma.  Give my sister a hug in Heaven and tell her I love her, too!