First Day of School: Lessons Learned on Life and Love

It figures I sleep in this morning. It's the first day of school.

I had the alarm set but the volume turned off.

It feels like the middle of the night when my son is at the side of my bed asking to come sleep for awhile in between us and in my sleepy state I shoo him off to his father's side. With his persistence I wake enough to look at the clock and blink the rest of sleep away.

6:45! and so the day begins. I knew I should have gone to bed before 12:33 am.

Even as a child, I never could get to sleep the night before the first day of school.

I reach for my phone and see an encouraging text from my sister-in-law and a challenge to read a few verses of scripture she is meditating on.

I'm determined to still start my day with a bit of quiet and I shuffle to the kitchen, set my coffee to drip, and grab my Bible. I open up to 1 Corinthians 8:1-4 and read it over a few times. I  flip back to Psalm 119 and marvel at the cries and desires and delights of the Psalmist. I smell the coffee and pour out a cup and consider some words penned by Spurgeon.

It's the first day of school and we think about gaining knowledge and wisdom, but I am challenged at the central theme of love interwoven in the words I just read.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

The Psalmist loved God and His ways and decrees. He yearned after God:

"With my whole heart I seek you . . . Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways . . . You are good and do good; teach me your statutes . . . The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple . . . "

Men of old could boldly claim their love for their God and be confident of His steadfast love for them.

"Get positive knowledge of your love of Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can speak of your interest in Him as a reality, which you have made sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and His seal upon your soul by faith. 
True love to Christ is in every case the Holy Spirit's work, and must be wrought in the heart by Him. He is the efficient cause of it; but the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in Himself. Why do we love Jesus? Because He first loved us. Why do we love Jesus? Because He "gave Himself for us." We have life through His death; we have peace through His blood. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor. Why do we love Jesus? Because of the excellency of His person.We are filled with a sense of His beauty! an admiration of His charms! a consciousness of His infinite perfection! His greatness, goodness, and loveliness, in one resplendent ray, combine to enchant the soul till it is so ravished that it exclaims, "Yea, He is altogether lovely." Blessed love this--a love which binds the heart with chains more soft than silk, and yet more firm than adamant!" (Spurgeon, 'Morning by Morning' Sept. 3)

It is this gentle weaving of  these threads of the steadfast love of God in our lives.

  

Oh, I can force my children to sit at their desks with their pencils gripped in their hands or I can by God's grace love my children to stir their hearts to the wonderful ways of God.

Knowledge without love is empty.




Unless we know and are known by God, all our knowledge will cause us to inflate ourselves with our own importance and lead us to pride which will leave us empty and prevent us from loving others.

I know I can't do it in my own strength.

It's by God's grace working in me in the power of His Spirit that will allow His love to fill me up to overflowing and through me into those near and dear to me.

To build them up and awaken them to learn about God and His world.

To love them and disciple them to be lovers of God and in awe of His steadfast love.

My sons starts his math before breakfast, but it's the startling truth we share after we drink our strawberry smoothies that my sweet daughter made for us and take a chilly walk around the neighbourhood.

When, as a family, we sit together and talk about our goals and desires for this upcoming year.

After we come up with an acronym for a theme for this upcoming year: {WORK WELL!!}

Without complaining
Order & Beauty
Respect others on your team
Know and pursue truth

With a good attitude
Expect excellence
Love learning
Live for God's glory

It is when their Father reads about the love demonstrated in the bread and the wine. 

On the First Day of School he opens to the amazing grace of the Last Supper and how it is the body that was broken and the blood of the Lamb that was shed that takes away sin.

And how we can live because He died and we've been chosen from before time and He has conquered sin and we can look forward to the day when we will be with Him for all eternity.

We do our learning here, but it is really all about our loving and living for all eternity to the praise of His glory.

When we keep the cross in the centre and love as the central theme for all our days and seek the Sovereign God over all and cry out to Him to continue to seek us and for the rest of our lives rest our lives on God's grace and forgiveness, and his steadfast love, we will drink deeply of His grace and awaken our hearts and our children's hearts to the mercies of God that are new every morning.