Have you ever considered the significance of a school backpack? Think about it. A few months ago, your grandchildren (some more boisterously than others) removed their backpacks and tossed them either in the back of their closest or an outside trash bin. Only one thing occupied their minds: summer vacation.

The summer has now passed, and a new academic year awaits them. When it comes to buying a new backpack, your grandchildren are faced with a vast array of choices: Star Wars or Hello Kitty, floral or leopard prints, stripes or solids. Next, they need to decide upon the school supplies they will carry in their backpacks. Mechanical pencils or erasable pens? Three-ringed binder or composition notebooks? Wide or college-ruled paper?

But what about a spiritual backpack? Is there anything special your grandchildren need to carry to school? The answer is YES!

Paul’s Letter to the Colossians

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul uses imagery to describe taking off the old and putting on the new. He isn’t talking about school backpacks. He is talking about throwing off our crucified sinful natures and clothing ourselves with the righteousness of Christ. 

In order to appreciate the passion in Paul’s letter, we need to understand that Colossae was a center of paganism. The early believers were bombarded with false teachings and struggled to  stay on course. Paul’s letter served as an encouragement and exhortation in which he offered practical advice for Christ-like living. Paul writes:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony…” (Colossians 3:12-14, ESV).

Your grandchildren are being bombarded with false teachings. In order for them to walk into a new school year, guided by the principles and ethics of Christ’s love, they need to discard their sinful natures and clothe themselves in his righteousness. All this is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit working within them.

Let’s consider the character traits Paul mentions in Colossians and how they could influence your grandchildren’s behavior during the school year.

Kindness and Compassion

As believers, we are called to be like Christ in disposition, demeanor, and character. Not only are we called to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, (Matthew 22:37-39 ESV). This includes treating others with kindness, compassion, gentleness, and goodness – all traits summarized by the Greek word chrestotes. 

Jesus demonstrated chrestotes when he touched a leper’s hand; dined with a tax collector; conversed with the Samaritan woman at the well; healed blind Bartimaeus; and diffused the crowd’s hatred for a condemned adulterous by writing in the sand. 

In a series of quotes about kindness, Charles Spurgeon said, “Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness… Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting…Don’t only give your care but give your heart as well.”

For your grandchildren, treating others with chrestotes could mean asking a new student to join them for lunch or helping a fellow classmate pick up the books they dropped. Regardless of the situation, kindness always begins when your grandchildren notice or consider the needs of others.

Humility

Humility goes a step further than considering or assessing the needs of others. It means counting others more significant than ourselves, (Philippians 2:3, ESV).

Jesus exemplified humility when he removed his outer robes, knelt before the disciples, and began washing the dirt from their feet. His greatest act of humility occurred less than twenty-four hours later when he humbled himself in obedience and poured out his life as a propitiation for our sin.

Humility requires us to look beyond our own inconveniences and offer ourselves as servants. For your grandchildren, this could mean giving someone a seat on the bus, tutoring a student who struggles academically, befriending an outcast, or defending a fellow classmate from the playground bully.

Patience: Bearing One Another’s Faults and Offering Forgiveness

Chances are that your grandchildren will encounter a classmate who is repeatedly annoying, irritating, insensitive, unkind, and possibly cruel. Having patience and bearing with this child’s faults may prove difficult for your grandchildren; forgiving this classmate may be even harder. 

This is a teachable moment, one in which you can talk with your grandchildren about what it means to carry forgiveness in their spiritual backpacks. It’s the perfect time to acknowledge that forgiveness is difficult and to share a personal experience about how God helped you forgive someone who hurt you.

Together, you can open the Bible to the eighteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel and read Jesus’ response to Peter’s suggestion that we place a limit on the number of times we offer forgiveness. Our Lord responded, “I tell you, not seven times, seven times but seventy-seven times,” (Matthew 18:22, NIV). In other words, there is no limit to the number of times we are called to forgive someone, regardless of how irritating or hurtful they can be. 

Love

God created us to love him and to love one another. The characteristics described above—namely kindness, compassion, humility, patience, and forgiveness—are all manifestations of love. God’s love. It’s no wonder Paul instructs the Colossians, “above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony,” (Colossians 3:14, ESV). 

If our grandchildren strap on their spiritual backpacks with the love of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, everything else will fall into place.

PRAYER:

Abba Father, we humbly pray for our grandchildren as they prepare for a new school year. Please fill their spiritual backpacks with your love, kindness, humility, patience, and forgiveness, so they will bring Christ’s love and the message of his salvation into their classrooms and schools. Amen.