Did you know that August is a time of year that you’re more likely to skip your spiritual practices? If you stop to think about it for a second, August is pretty hectic. For some reason, it also feels high stakes. New teachers, new schedules, new classrooms, and somehow you have to wrap your brain around it. Before you know it, God just took a backseat in your mind. Whoopsie! This is why I’m giving you 3 tips to avoid the back to school spiritual slump.
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I was recently looking at the kids back to school dates, and somehow there are four different back to school meet the teachers and/or pep rallies. All on different dates, all of which lead up to a couple nights before the first day of school. Are you already feeling overwhelmed and the kids haven’t even going back to school yet? It feels like the month of August is one long Sunday night, full of anticipation and mixed feelings.
Forget the frazzle this back to school season. The number one way to get rid of the overwhelm, mental stress, and frenetic mindset is to keep God elevated above everything else. Listen, we all know that sounds easy, hint: because it is when we prioritize it. Sometimes we find ourselves in a position where it’s hard to actually put God first. This is why these 3 tips to avoid the back to school spiritual slump will greatly increase your odds of sticking with spending time with Jesus.
Tip #1 Go to Church Every Sunday in August
Tip #1 to avoid the back to school spiritual slump: Make a commitment as a family to go to church every single Sunday in August. “But Wait, Brooke! We’re trying to squeeze in one last vacation or sports tournament!” I hear you. It’s us too. Thank God for online services. Anytime we can’t make it physically to church, we pull up our church’s YouTube channel and live stream (or rewatch later).
The point is, make a commitment to go to church every single Sunday this August (physically or online). Mark those calendars now, set reminders, and stick to being disciplined and showing up. If your church doesn’t have an online presence, CLICK HERE to go to ours and watch any of their sermons. If you can watch Netflix every day, you can surely watch one sermon. You can do it! Better yet, don’t let yourself click on Netflix until you’ve watched a sermon. Look at your and your Atomic Habits: “make it difficult” chapter.
Tip #2 Take, Trash, Tweak Method
Tip #2 to avoid the back to school spiritual slump is the take, trash, tweak method. Reflect back through the summer and even back to the previous school year. Look through the lens of my Read Pray Talk Tell method. Reading your Bible, praying regularly, talking in Christian community, and telling others about Jesus. With that particular spiritual growth lens, ask yourself the following questions:
- What worked well when it came to my spiritual walk?
- What did not work well when it came to my spiritual walk?
- What did I like in theory, but needs some adjusting when it came to my spiritual walk?
This is where you either take it and continue with it, trash it because it didn’t work, or tweak it because it may work better done a little differently. Here are three examples for me with my take, trash, tweak:
- Take: I’m definitely keeping the combo of the DAB and Bible Recap
- Trash: I’m letting go of studying my Bible at the kitchen table (I’ll explain in the tweak)
- Tweak: I’m going back to Bible study in the car because I’ll be commuting more with school starting up
Tip #3 Play Your Day
Tip #3 to avoid the back to school spiritual slump is to play your day. You’re going to think through your take, trash, tweak, and you’ll roll the film tape to see how it’s going to actually shake out. Sometimes we’ve got a great idea, but then when we think it through by playing our day, we can find holes in our logic. When we find these holes, take it back up to tweaking, and hit replay with the changes.
This can look like: You’ve decided you’re going to listen to the DAB (Daily Audio Bible) when you’re taking the kids to school. So you begin to play your day, and you realize that while you have your kids in the car, you’d rather be maximizing the car conversation with them. So let’s take that back to tweaking. While I’m driving the kids to school, I can ask them spiritually directed questions, sing worship songs with them, or practice memory verses.
That’s still an excellent use of your time, so now we need to find time to read our Bible. Can you listen after you drop them off? Yes? Let’s replay the day and see how that works. Repeat and trial and error. Flexibility is key! What works one day, may not on another. Use the take, trash, tweak method as much as needed to play your day.
Episode 303 Recap
That wraps up episode 303: 3 Tips to Avoid the Back to School Spiritual Slump. Let’s walk through the three tips one more time:
- Tip #1 Go to Church Every Sunday in August
- Tip #2 Take, Trash, Tweak Method
- Tip #3 Play Your Day
Tune in next week for the final Summer Thrive Guide mini series episode! I am praying for you and your families as you go into this upcoming school year. I can’t wait to hear about how this episode has worked for you. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself for this forethought when you’ve got God in forefront of your mind.
Links from the Show
- Summer Thrive Guide Mini Series (ep 291-304)
- Witty & Gritty on Instagram
- Community Life Church YouTube
- Atomic Habits book
