A long, wonderful summer is winding down, and it's "Back To School" time. Children everywhere are looking ahead to a new year. There is so much promise in a pack of unsharpened pencils, pages and pages of unused paper, and or course the look and feel and even the smell of new box of crayons. There is the uncertainty of who will be in what class. Will the new teacher be kind or mean? And, of course, which backpack will be chosen to carry all the new supplies.

As your Director of Christian Education, I have had the opportunity to be a part of the excitement of the backpack choosing. Our deacons have obtained a number of backpacks, our congregation has filled them with wonderful new school supplies, and I have had the joy of seeing the sheer delight of the children who choose one. And we have as a church been blessed in the process.

Children of all ages need our love and support as they head back to school. Isabelle starts to kindergarten. Hayley will begin middle school. Saralyn is now a college student. And Mike begins graduate school.

My nephew Sean is now in middle school. A teacher told his class to fill a small bag with things that represent their summer. Sean's first thought was to put a Bible in his bag since summer was a time of spiritual growth for him. But he is aware that others might make fun of him. He saw another student with a Bible at school and saw that child ridiculed. So along with other preparations for we school year, we need to pray for our students. Many prayer groups have formed around the country for the express purpose of praying for students and their teachers. We can't go to school with them, but God can and does! Happy new school year!

This is the time of year when we are all invited to attend graduations. We even had one in our family this year as our son-in-law Steve graduated with an MBA from Brandeis. It was a very special day because his parents who are missionaries in Africa were able to attend. But overall, graduations are not usually too much fun or too interesting. Often they are long, and we soon forget what the speakers say. We go because we care about the graduates and want to show our support for the effort and hard work that they have put into their program of studies.

However, on May 21st we went to a different type of graduation. Eugene graduated from a Salvation Army program in Cambridge, MA. He had moved through the phases of the program and had completed the final phase. His success in the program was an answer to prayers for him over a number of years.

I first heard about Eugene shortly after we came to First Baptist Arlington. At that time, we had a Tuesday night Bible study, and Bill often requested that we pray for his brother Eugene. The family did not know where Eugene was. In fact, they had not heard from him in years. But we faithfully prayed. Some time later, Eugene contacted his family and began to rebuild relationships. Then, unexpectedly Eugene had a stroke and needed help. Bill brought him to MA and helped him get medical help. During that time, Eugene took the Alpha course with us. I was sitting in class one night, looked over at Eugene, and realized that I was seeing the answer to our prayers; and I hadn't even realized it.

I think that there is a real lesson for us all in this story. First, we should pray and seek God's help with problems that we don't know how to solve. We need to trust God to care about those we are concerned with and to work in their lives in ways that we never dreamed possible. Finally we need to recognize what God in doing in answer to our prayers and to praise Him for loving us enough to answer our prayers.

As our Youth/Children’s Sunday approaches, I find myself thinking about all the things we learn from our children. First, when they are infants we learn how utterly dependent they are on us. We provide all the basic things that a baby needs – food, clothing, shelter, and love. At the beginning, they are incapable of providing anything for themselves. They have to TRUST us for their basic needs. In a similar way we have to learn to trust God for our basic needs. We see this in the prayer that Jesus taught us when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Nothing that we can accumulate in this world is guaranteed to always be there for us. Money, jobs, houses all can be lost. Only those things that God provides are truly secure.

My youngest granddaughter Lily is beginning to walk. How precious it is to watch her first steps. She wants to keep up with her older sisters. She wants to walk, but at this stage of her live she keeps falling. As we grow in our spiritual lives we must learn a different type of walking. The closer we walk with the Lord, the less we fall and the stronger we become. If Lily is near someone who can hold her hand and help her walk, she is more secure. If we WALK with our Lord and follow his ways, we too can walk more securely.

My oldest granddaughter Isabelle was baptized last Sunday. By this act she made a COMMITMENT to identify herself as a Christian. She is very young, but I believe that to the best of her ability to understand, she followed Jesus’ teaching. Her mother and father have taught her about the things of God. Many of us were taught, too, as children and young people to FOLLOW JESUS. That commitment was not just for childhood but is for our whole lives.

So it is our joy and responsibility to teach our children, but we do also learn much from them. And in doing so we can glimpse the depth of love that God our Father has for us as his children.

There are things in our past that sometimes continue to cause us problems. The pain of losing those near and dear to us often lingers and emerges in our present to cause pain. The anniversary of a death or even a special time sadden us. But there are also wonderful memories of the past and joy from previous times. We have a rich heritage of family and faith to enjoy remember. Most of all we remember that God loved us so much that at a specific time and place in history he revealed himself through his son Jesus. We also have his written word in many translations easily available. Check out biblegateway.com to compare the wording of scripture passages.

We live now in the present. Today there are red and yellow tulips blooming in my yard. I saw the dogwood trees and forsythia blooming as I drove to church. I can only enjoy it today. Next week or so I can enjoy the green leaves that will follow. The past certainly affects my present, but today I have unique opportunities. I will strive to "seize the day" and appreciate it as a gift from God.

The future lies ahead. At times it seems very scary. When I glanced at the gas stations I also passed this morning, I was amazed at the high gas prices. Who knows how how high they will go and what affect they will have on our everyday lives. There are many things that concern us about the future. But those of us who follow Christ also know that he will be with us through all the difficult things that lie ahead. We can also trust him to provide much joy and blessing.

Christ's assurance of being with us always sustains us whether we are thinking about the past, dealing with the present, or planning for the future.