School Time Again!

Fall is just around the corner once again. It won’t be much longer before cooler weather will be here with its football games and falling leaves. Soon we will be seeing the school buses and backpacks as children go back to school. For most children, butterflies in the stomach are just as much a part of returning to school as textbooks and pencils. I remember very well being a child and having that feeling of nervousness on the first day of school. I also remember making up excuses in feeble attempts to convince my mother to let me stay home. I did not realize at the time how privileged I was to be given the opportunity of obtaining an education. I now know that in many countries children do not have the opportunities that I have been given, and I am truly thankful for those blessings, even though school years sometimes seemed difficult.

One of the main things I remember about being in school as a teenager is how school seemed to take over one’s life. Teenagers will oftentimes place themselves in their “own little world.” The most trivial of problems can seem like the end of the world, while things that are really important are pushed aside. I can remember a time when having a good stereo system and a “cool” pair of shoes was more important to me than any final exam.

As I look back on those years, I realize that as adults we can often be guilty of those same faults without even realizing it. We may be guilty of living in our own little world of work, leisure, and family, while putting spiritual duties aside, such as studying God’s Word, praying, helping others, and teaching others the Gospel. I have often wished that I could somehow go back to the time when I was a teenager and “wake myself up.” We now have the opportunity to awaken and see the need to make spiritual matters a priority!

Jesus said, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). Let us not be confined to a small world of complacency, but rather open our eyes to opportunities before us and take full advantage of every one of them to do the will of the Lord!

Jason Hilburn