You Deserve a Sticker
August 31, 2019
Both Amazon and Staples have been loudly ringing the bell which calls all students to return to the hallowed hallways of school! The call has been answered by almost every student now, and those who have not yet returned to school, will do so after this Labor Day weekend.
Amazon’s “back to school duct tape” on their packages, and Staples’ back to school commercials have been ushering everyone back to the books for weeks now.
Staples has been serving up back to school advertisements which link school supplies to sweet sentiments for the soul. They are almost of the Hallmark “heartstring pulling” quality. For instance, a mom writes, with a sharpie pen, on her daughter’s new ruler, “Because life isn’t always a straight line.”
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oStC/staples-back-to-school-art-fair
Another student, an aspiring writer, finds a new, blank journal in his school locker with a note from Mom and Dad saying, “Your story starts here!”.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oK7w/staples-back-to-school-the-writer
Lured by these inspirational ads, which have the potential to soften the blow that “summer is over” and the new school year has begun, I visited Staples. I needed school supplies and fresh motivation to return to school myself, because I wasn’t convinced I had enough summer.
When I shopped at Staples, I found some stickers I had not noticed before this year. Along with the Staples’ campaign to encourage buying school supplies from them, is a new strategy to encourage adults— “adulting stickers”- because adulting is difficult, and sometimes more so at back to school time! Apparently it is not only our students who need motivational stickers; adults need them too!
Going back to school challenges kids and adults alike and raises concerns for both-concerns about scholastic success, teachers, friends, difficulty of study, and many other emotions. Will it be a hard year? Will they be in the same class as their best buddies? Will they like their teachers? Will their teachers like them? Even with the enthusiasm which may accompany the return to school, there may be difficult things to face too!
So, as we begin this new school year and send our children out the door, or to a college dorm, with new school supplies, let’s send them dressed in their new school clothes and in the full armor of God! Yes, being an adult or kid may be difficult, and warrant a sticker or two, but nothing is too hard for the Lord-even going back to school and even adulting! Have a blessed new school year! Lean hard on Him!
Luke 18: 27 English Standard Version (ESV)
27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Jeremiah 32: 27 (ESV)
27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?