![\"benedictions\"](\"https:\/\/oshetablogs.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/benedictions.jpg\")
<\/a>Today begins a new school year.\u00a0 I\u2019m always so conflicted on the first day of school. On one hand, I\u2019m completely elated, I mean seriously, summer was long and my patience grew thin.\u00a0 On the other, I\u2019m sad that my babies are off in the world again.\u00a0 For six plus hours someone is guiding and loving and influencing them.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy for it and I\u2019m deeply convinced they need to be in the world but not a part of the world, but good grief\u2014 them are my babies!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\nMothering school-aged children is bittersweet, but I had something in my back pocket to temper the aftertaste of letting go.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last night as we got ready for the first day of school, I thought about my plans and Pinterested the best way to execute them. But my plans were interrupted when my daughter needed a new headband because \u201cI JUST WANT MY HAIR DOWN AND OUT OF MY FACE!\u201d so we rushed to target with the money she saved for sunglasses. When I came home,\u00a0 backpacks were not yet packed and bodies not yet showered.\u00a0 I yelled about not having white Converse cleaned in time and not being in bed by 8. You could say, I was a bit of a wreck getting ready for back to school. But could you blame me?\u00a0 I was planning something so great and I just wanted it to go perfect and I needed the kids asleep to create perfection.\u00a0 Finally, my husband told me to take a chill pill.\u00a0 I said, \u201cwhatever, man it\u2019s back to school time.\u201d Then he played the calm and rational husband card: \u201cyou\u2019re anxious and you need some space\u201d\u00a0 so\u00a0 he took over the bedtime so that I could rest and get a hold of myself.\u00a0 He\u2019s a good man like that.<\/p>\n Then he came down and we hugged it out and got to work\u00a0 on creating back to school benedictions for our kids.<\/p>\n The idea started back in July on our family vacation.\u00a0 Every year we go to Pilgrim Pines for a week of encouragement, relaxation, and way too much ice cream!\u00a0 This year our speaker was the phenomenal, Judy Peterson.\u00a0 Judy is the campus pastor at North Park University in Chicago, IL.\u00a0 Her series that week was on being a follower of Jesus.\u00a0 Man, I took away so much from that week.\u00a0 I learned to embrace the good names God has for me. I learned to find my calling in being Jesus\u2019 first anything else second. I reflected on the ways I hold back from him and I learned how to let him bless me.\u00a0 This last one, Judy showed me more than taught.\u00a0 At the end of every session, she asked us to stand up, lift our hands, and receive the benediction\u2014a blessing that comes at the end of something, a blessing to send you on your way in peace.<\/p>\n Benedictions are my favorite liturgical practice ever!\u00a0 When the truth is spoken over me as I leave a gathering of believers, I leave knowing I am loved, that I am extraordinary, and confident that am not alone.\u00a0 Even when I leave a gathering of hundreds of people, a poignant benediction leaves me full and connected hours after I\u2019m home.<\/p>\n This is what we wanted to give our babies before they jump back into the fray of school\u2014a confidence in their belovedness even when they\u2019re not with us. School with all it\u2019s expectations, and rules, and drama, and messiness, can really jack a child up.\u00a0 They can become unmoor-ed from truth when we decided to write benedictions for our children, we simply wanted help them find their anchor when they are inevitably tossed about.<\/p>\n Benedictions have a way of helping us become our truest selves and so I took a page from Barbara Brown Taylor when she wrote about benedictions in \u201cAn Altar in the World\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n To pronounce a blessing on something, it is important to see it as it is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I asked my husband to see our children as they are with me and help me bless them as they go back to school.<\/p>\n After we saw each child for who they are, we came up with three blessings for them, then I got to work.\u00a0 I decided to take the ever popular \u201cback to school\u201d signs and make them work for me.\u00a0 No longer would I use them as a notch on my belt to prove my Pinterest-worthiness, they could become a resource to bless and remind my babies of who they are.\u00a0 I made \u201cfirst day of being (add their benediction name)\u201d signs.<\/p>\n We thought about our oldest, Tyson starting middle school all nerves and brass.\u00a0 We saw through his bravado and saw the fears of his heart, \u2018Will I fit in?\u00a0 Who do I belong to? Will they like me?\u2019.\u00a0 Because, seriously what tween entering middle school doesn\u2019t feel like this? But we also knew that he\u2019s a bridge-builder, he\u2019d rush home from a pick-up basketball game with the athletic kids to play D&D with his \u201cgeek pride\u201d club.\u00a0 He\u2019s quirky but aware of trends. He\u2019s a theologian and comedian all at once.\u00a0 So, this morning over breakfast pizza, I put my hand on his head and said, \u201cTyson, I bless you on this your first day of middle school to be a bridge-builder.\u00a0 I bless you to be like Jesus\u2014not pulled into anyone\u2019s group for the sake of creating division and insecurity.\u00a0 I bless you to pull the kids who seem like they wouldn\u2019t get along together and to show them how to learn from each other.\u00a0 I bless you to be the ultimate clique-buster\u2014 like Jesus to brought together the tax collector and the zealot.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> In addition to his benediction name, we gave him a video of encouragement from the men in his life on middle school.\u00a0 We set him down in front of my computer and let three men offer a different kind of benediction, a blessing that says, \u201cyou can do this, you\u2019re made for greatness, and you will be fine\u201d and really isn\u2019t that what we all need\u2014a concert of voices that sing shalom over us?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Then we considered our middle guy, TJ.\u00a0 TJ is still coming into his own.\u00a0 He\u2019s my boy in between<\/a> and we often worry that he\u2019s not connecting with friends enough even though he\u2019s such a kind and eager friend.\u00a0 Too many times, I\u2019ve had to explain to him that we just can\u2019t bring every kid he meets at the park home with us.\u00a0 He\u2019s my perpetual party planner and he\u2019s always looking for ways to gather people.\u00a0 The thing about TJ is he loves deeply almost immediately.\u00a0 Everyone is his best friend and brother.\u00a0 So this year we blessed him to take that impulse and be a friend-maker.\u00a0 With my hands running through this curls, I said, \u201cTJ, I bless you to go and be like Jesus, looking for the people who need a friend.\u00a0 Like the woman at the well and the leper at the city gates. I bless your eyes to see the kids who need a buddy and I bless our schedule to make time for play dates.\u201d\u00a0<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n