I LOVE traditions!
I actually have a note saved on my phone with all of our family traditions listed out by holiday. (I know, I’m a dork!)
One of my all-time favorite traditions is this one for back-to-school:
(And can I just add, look how little my son was! This was two years ago. I can’t believe how much he has grown…And look, he wanted to be a “tire man.” I don’t even know what that is, but it’s adorable, don’t you think? Okay, no more tears. Back to work!)
Each year, on the first day of school, we take a picture in our yard (by the same tree, just to make it fun). Then my super-crafty husband adds in our child’s “favorites” using Photoshop.
If you don’t have a tech bone in your body (like me), and don’t have a husband who is able to do it for you, check out Canva or Picmonkey. These programs are amazingly user-friendly and allow you to add text to images very easily.
This picture is one of our back-to-school traditions. You can read a few other ideas at this post on The Mom Initiative.
This year, as I was scanning Pinterest to get my mind off of the reminder that BOTH of my littles are going to school this year, I ran across this idea from my friend Joanne Kraft.
One of her back-to-school traditions is to choose a Bible verse for the entire year.
Back-to-School Bible Verse:
I LOVE this idea.
As a follower of Jesus who wants her kids to come to know and love the Lord, I have the best of intentions. I plan to dig into daily devotionals with my kids and use every teachable moment that comes my way and memorize verses with them each week.
I have the best of intentions, but unfortunately, life gets busy and my good intentions never come to fruition.
That’s why I love this idea.
One Bible verse for the entire year? Yeah, I think we can handle that.
We are going to work on this one from Matthew 5:16:
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
My husband and I send our kids to public school, and we live in a relatively low-income community. Many of the kids at my childrens’ school don’t have some of the luxuries my boys enjoy (luxuries like clean homes and clothing, shoes that fit, and parents that are home most evenings).
When we send our kids to school, we send them to a mission field.
There are kids at their school who have never heard about a God who loves them. They might not have been shown that kind of love at home.
School is a chance to for my boys to BE JESUS to their classmates.
This verse is a great reminder of that, so I’m excited to begin this new tradition this year with this awesome verse from Matthew 5.
If you were to pick a Bible verse for your kids for the year, which one would you choose? Respond in the comments!
