What’s in Your Backpack?
Grab your backpack from last school year and go through it together. What’s the funniest or weirdest thing you found in it?

How are you feeling about going back to school?
What are some things that will be familiar? In what ways will school be different for you this year? What are you looking forward to?

What will you pack in your backpack?
This year, as you pack your notebooks and water bottles, consider Micah 6:8 which says: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Justice, kindness, and humbleness: together, these three things make up the way of life God calls us to live. What do these words have to do with going back to school?

We do justice by speaking up for others, noticing and meeting needs, and helping everyone feel included.

• • What are some practical ways you can do justice this school year.
    • Here are some ideas: Speak up for someone being bullied, learn about needs in your community and find a way to help, creation care like picking up trash or working in a community garden.

We show that we love kindness by being friendly, unselfish, and considerate of others.

• • What are three ways you can show kindness to others this year?
    • Here are some suggestions: Invite the new kid to your lunch table, share a positive word with someone at school every day, be a good listener with your friends.

We walk humbly by being thankful, respectful, and willing to listen.

• • How can you show humility at school?
    • Here are a few ideas: Thank someone once a week, be gracious when you win and when you lose, don’t be braggy, and congratulate others when they succeed.