In our neck of the woods, today is the day!
The day that summer break ends and school begins.
The new clothes are donned, the lunch kit doesn’t yet have that funky odor, the knapsack packed with binders, pencils and calculators (as one who spends her work days helping students with math, please buy them a calculator if they are in high school … there are only so many one can acquire in her desk drawer).
There is excitement in the air, as all things are new, fresh.
With this beginning of school there are so many other clubs, teams, lessons etc. that are also resuming.
Now is when students and parents are signing up for these extracurricular activities, with great anticipation of competitions, skills development and new learning.
And that is a good and fun part of all of these activities,
but …
Parents, there is something else that kids need. They need it this school year, but they also need it so that they grow to be healthy, well-balanced adults.
It’s margin … and it has little to do with money investments (although … there is certainly an investment angle to it).
Margin is best described in comparison to the margins we leave when writing on a piece of paper. We do not begin writing at the very top left corner of a piece of paper and continue to the bottom right. Instead we write in the middle, leaving a space, a margin, around our writing.
This is good writing practise … it is also a good life practise.
Parents, consider ensuring that there is margin around the to-dos in your kids days. Not just margin for sleeping and eating, but margin for exploration, discovery, wonder. Green therapy (being outdoors), playing board games together, reading a book, baking cookies, playing road hockey, taking the pooch for a walk.
These are the elements in a day that can refill their cups, instill the practise of life learning, remind them of one greater than them. It can give their brains time to rest, time to grow.
This margin is not to sit and just stare, solo, at a screen. It is time in their schedules to explore, to breath, to be nourished by the greater things, the things that lead us to contemplate, to ponder, to talk to God.
This margin will actually give your kids more … more energy, more productivity, more creativity, more capacity to learn, to live.
You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!
Haggai 1:6
itsawonderfilledlife 