The first day of school. The first day brings up a cascade of different emotions and perspectives. Younger students are either excited or nervous about settling into a new class or meeting a new teacher. Teenagers try to act cool while they pick up schedules and check out the first day fashions. Teachers pull out their lesson plans and their comfortable shoes. Parents buy school supplies, pack lunches, put little ones on the bus, and breathe a sigh of relief or wipe away a tear. The first day of school is a marker that signals a return to the routines of homework, practices, early mornings, and learning.
Students, by definition, are people who are engaged in learning. Learning is essential to growth, maturity, compassion, and the ability to interact with the world in a way that is healthy. Education isn’t as much about conquering a set of facts, tables, or questions as it is about learning how to see the world, think through the possibilities, and discover the impact you are meant to make. Multiplication tables and vocabulary lists help us make that journey, but the goal is to equip students to make a difference, take a stand, and live courageously.
There is no age limit on being a student. In fact, one of the best gifts that a parent can give a child is to visibly be a life-long learner. Education is at its best when it launches us into a lifetime of discovery. Christianity ignites its deepest transformation when we live as disciples, students committed to learning and imitating the Teacher.
My Jesus Resolution today is to go back to school. God’s classroom is everywhere I will walk today. There are lessons to learn, truths to be discovered, homework to do, and attention to be given as I drive on the freeway, go to work, shop at the store, answer my email, wash the dishes, and interact with my neighbors. I am not done being a student. God calls me to live a life committed to learning how to be like Jesus.
Casandra Martin 
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