back to school prayer printable

my Facebook feed is 99% first day of school pictures today and i love it. huge smiles, new backpacks, new shoes, fresh haircuts, big yellow school buses, and lots of mamas with teary eyes.

let's pray.

let's start the school year off thanking God for His peace and protection over our children, our teachers, our schools, and our homes. this prayer was prayed with families the night before school started in 2011 by my pastor's wife. it's a powerful declaration claiming God's promises. it's my go-to prayer for back to school season.

DOWNLOAD & PRINT

post this prayer next to the hooks where the kids hang their backpacks, or near on the kitchen counter where you pack lunches, or on the back door so you see it on your way out. and pray. 

"Prayer is what opens up the floodgates for God to come down and be involved in our everyday circumstances." -Priscilla Shirer

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. 

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. 

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 4:6-7 

curated: back to school, homeschooling, friendships, and TobyMac

simply sharing a few of my favorite reads from around the internet lately on the topics of back to school, homeschooling, friendships, and TobyMac. 

// 4 THINGS TO CUT FROM YOUR SCHEDULE BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS instead of a back to school to-do list, Tricia Goyer offers this brilliant back to school not-to-do list. i would be as bold to say consider these four things all year and what can be cut from the calendar. let's guard our time and be more careful with our days.

// CRAZY ENOUGH TO HOMESCHOOL homeschooling families get asked a lot of questions from other families that do not homeschool. i am asked questions # 1, 2, and 7 every single time someone finds out we homeschool. Ann Voskamp's response is beautiful and her reasoning rings true for us in so many ways. this >> "What I love most about the homeschooling lifestyle is that we are all together, in all our glorious mess, day in and day out. We are not time-torn or fragmented. We are gathered. There is no dichotomy between God and secular: we are making a one-piece life. This works for us." and this >> "Just make it part of your real life, make it a joy, make it a discovery, and prayerfully make it consistent."

// HEALTHY, LOVING FRIENDSHIPS i pray my children know what it is to have good friends and to be a good friend. friendships are important to me! and they are important to God. God intended that we learn to love and walk with others. it's not important that we have many friends, but that we have good, true friends in our lives. Lisa Jacobson at Club31Women offers some good ways to help our daughters develop healthy, loving friendships, although i think these tips are good for everyone.

// THE LOST ART OF LEANING IN speaking of friendships, i am blessed with friends in my life who know how and when to lean in, and who are comfortable letting me lean in. and i don't take this for granted. the filing cabinet Michele Cushatt mentions here? i have one and it gets stuffed. i am so thankful for the time i take to lean in with my friends. "nothing can replace the extraordinary beauty of good old fashioned friendship. That sweetness of sharing our in-progress, undone stories with another honest soul wrestling through her own." << i treasure it! 

// THIS IS NOT A TEST "I still believe that a song can penetrate a heart. I believe God can use a song to open someone's mind and heart." -TobyMac. his latest album, This is Not a Test, is on repeat around here. especially "Feel It" - we like the dance vibe and lyrics: "Everybody talkin' like they need some proof, but what more do I need than to feel You!" get this music. let God use it to open your heart! 

curated for your reading pleasure. click around, comrades! 

///

the talk: passport 2 purity

i will be having "the talk" with my kids soon. and if you haven't already, you will be having it with your kids, too. it happens: they grow up. and part of my responsibility as Mom is to have talks with my kids about important life things. it's hard but it's awesome and i am thankful God trusts me with their precious lives.

parenting doesn't come with a handbook, it's true. but thank goodness for the Bible and biblical parenting resources for when i don't know what to say or how to say it. Passport2Purity is going to be my resource for having a certain "talk" with my children. produced by FamilyLife and highly recommended by my mentor mommy friends, Passport2Purity (P2P) is designed to assist parents in building heart-to-heart communication with preteens while laying a foundation of purity.

P2P is a weekend getaway kit for a parent and child to get away and spend time intentionally discussing moral integrity, framed with biblical truths.

the Passport2Purity® Getaway Kit comes with:

• Tour Guide for the parent
• Travel Journal for the preteen including 25 follow-up devotions
• 8 CDs containing 5 sessions
• scripture memory songs 
• downloadable MP3s: Session 1: Beginning the Journey – Challenges, Traps, and Choices; Session 2: Running With The Herd – Friendships and Peer Pressure; Session 3: Ready For An Upgrade? – Changes in Him, Changes in Her; Session 4: Destination: Lé Pure – Setting Boundaries; Session 5: Crossing The Date Line – Seeing Dating Differently

i pray my children have a solid faith foundation, a strong relationship with us and with the Lord, and discernment for things they will encounter in the world. spending a weekend with them using P2P's guided conversations and experiences is a memorable, special way to have "the talk"when they're ready. so maybe i'm not ready for them to grow up and be big kids, but i can say now that i am prepared to have these conversations with them!

get the Passport2Purity® Getaway Kit here.

have you used Passport2Purity? how are you preparing for "the talk"? 

Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

*i was provided with a copy of P2P in exchange for my honest opinion. 

Declare 2015: i don't have words yet

except to say that we are living trophies of God's grace. we are digital evangelists on a mission to change the tone of the internet by sharing our stories and sharing The Story.

i pray that out of His glorious riches He will strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. and I pray that you, being rooted deep and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! amen. 

ephesians 3:16-21

hope to see you at Declare 2016 :)

xo