It’s that time again. The kids are back in school and with that our mommy calendars immediately start to fill up. New routines. New bed times. New nightly stress about homework and even after school activities. Oh how I love the smell of a freshly sharpened number two pencil (no really, I do) and also dislike all the anxiousness that surrounds the back to school season.
Did we get all the supplies on the class lists?
Are we going to miss the bus?
What about classes, did they get the classes they needed or the teachers we wanted?
Breathe in sweet mommy friends. It’s going to be alright. The kids will settle in and so will you, but until then I would love to take a minute to challenge you with a new adventure this school season.
Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Psalm 150:6 NLT
Let’s start this new school year completely covered in prayer. Prayer for your kids, for your family, for the teachers, the administrators and for those our kids will come in contact with throughout the year.
But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 NLT
For years one of the ways I have covered my kids in prayer is by writing lunchbox love notes in their school lunches. It was my way of being with them even while they were on their own at school. I knew that there might come a day that they wouldn’t necessarily appreciate these lunchbox love notes as much, but I still wrote them and tenderly packed them in their lunches every day.
At first, before the kids were reading, they were simple little pictures. Trees, birds, sunshine, and trucks. I wasn’t an artist, but it didn’t matter, my boys knew that their mama was checking in on them and they felt special. As they entered elementary school the pictures turned into words of encouragement about a test or something that they were worried about. Even on into middle school the notes continued, not every day, mind you, but at least once a week at this point. Now that they were getting older the notes were in “text talk” and sometimes even in code so that their friends didn’t see or read them.
I wasn’t entirely sure the kids even appreciated the lunch box love notes any longer at this point, but I was not going to let the “cool factor” keep me from sending my love to my boys throughout the day.
It was time to up my game and while they were in high school their lunch box love notes turned into random lunch texts from me–nothing long or major, just a note about a test, a girlfriend concern/problem, or whatever was going on in their world that week. I wanted them to know at this point that even though they were growing up and becoming young men that they would forever be my precious little boys.
Up until recently I had forgotten about these lunchbox love notes that I had sent my boys throughout the years. At seventeen and nineteen now they are hardly little any longer, but while in one of their rooms the other day I stumbled upon a stack of these lunchbox love notes that they had kept from all these years. My mama heart nearly burst. These simple little drawings, notes and words of encouragement touched their hearts — enough to keep them all these years.
Sweet mamas, your kids are listening, they are watching, and they are waiting for you to send them a little love too. They may openly resist these little love notes from home, but trust me, they really do appreciate the sweet words of encouragement from their mamas. Every time I wrote one of those notes to my boys I covered it in prayer before setting it in the lunchbox. It was my way of praying for a little piece of home in the middle of their busy school day.
What about you?
Do you write your kids lunchbox love notes?
What other ways can you send a little love to them throughout their day at school?
Seeking JOY on the Journey,
Melissa Mashburn
Real Women. Real Life. Real Faith.
PS – The photo was taken by my brilliant friend, Amanda Curtiellas. The lunchbox is my actual lunchbox from high school (yes, high school) and the post it notes are copies of actual notes I have sent to my boys over the years.
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