Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of summer, but it also signals an approaching end. Students in your area may face a few more days or weeks of school, but they’ll soon be leaving the 2013-14 academic year behind.

How will the youth you serve mark the end of this school year? Yearbooks remain a popular tradition, even in this social-media age. “I think students still go to great lengths to purchase a yearbook, especially our seniors,” says one high school teacher and yearbook adviser. Some schools build time for signing yearbooks into the last days’ schedule.

Special field trips or class parties also may happen at year’s end, and formal graduation ceremonies signal a school year’s close with suitable pomp and circumstance.

The Good Old Summertime?

Students’ understandable excitement about the school year’s end can be tempered by the fact that they’re also saying goodbye. It may be that youth only have to say “so long” for the summer, as they head to camps or vacations or fill their days with summer employment. But sometimes the goodbyes are a bigger deal. Some youth will be changing schools as they enter high school. Graduating seniors may be leaving for college, military service, or other destinations; and some families wait until school ends to move to other neighborhoods or cities, hoping to minimize disruptions for students.

The year’s end can bring mixed emotions for other reasons, too. Some youth won’t have summer schedules packed with fun activities—just long days at home, with too much time to fill. Other youth may feel pressure to use their summers to get ahead, whether in extra classes or at a job. Summers aren’t carefree for everyone.

Trusting God Through Transition

Christians don’t automatically have an easier time finding closure than anyone else. What our faith does provide, however, is a perspective that helps us face endings and transitions with confidence in God and trust in God’s guidance and love.

Question of the Day: What would Jesus write in your yearbook?

Focal Scriptures: Psalm 105; 106; Acts 1:4-11; 20:17-38

For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC here!