Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. – Psalm 127:3

I have had something that has shifted in my life of late. I drove a school bus when I was a high school student back in the 1960s. About six years ago I decided that retirement wasn’t enough to do things I wanted to do, so I signed up to drive a school bus again. After extensive training, which was not the case fifty years ago I was rewarded with a CDL-B with the requisite P & S endorsements to transport people.

I was given two schools to run routes to and from. By chance at the time it was a middle school and an elementary school. I was on the route to learn it with the driver the first day who was leaving. She drove that morning and I drove it that afternoon with her observance. After that it was all on me. Those kids were wild. After a few days I remember not too far into the afternoon run for the elementary school I thought to myself I didn’t know if I could do this without incurring a heart attack. The stress was real, folks.

I’ve seen some of those kids apparently not taking their medication jumping up and down and twirling around in mid-air. Going head over heels over seats and crawling under seats. The window licking kid isn’t a joke. Neither is the “Ewwwww” I got when one peeled chewing gum off the floor and chewed it. I’ve had strawberry flavored twinkies dropped on the floor and stepped on. That took a knife to scrape it off the floor when I got back in from the run. I’ve had kids suspended for drugs and fights. Two got suspended for choking each other. I have drama queens that lose their teeth. No, not just “lose” a tooth, but lose a lost tooth out of a baggie onto the floor and could not find it. The search was on. I’ve had a couple of students with ODD (Obsessive Defiance Disorder). Look it up. That is likely the most difficult of situations to deal with. I’ve had students with medical issues include Gran Mal Siezures that I’m glad didn’t occur on the bus. This past year I have had tampons left on the floor from my middle schoolers and rather risque notes that found their way into my hands when cleaning my bus after my run. It can be rather interesting to say the least.

Still, I’ve had much joy evolve from it all. Most tell me I’m the best bus driver they’ve ever had and some gift me with things I value. Just this week one kindergarten student’s mom and she gave me a bag of Starbuck’s coffee and insulated cup, a cream-filled donut and gourmet cookies. Over the time I’ve driven I’ve been given gift cards to a variety of places. Some simple give me a drawing of a school bus with their rendition of them and me on the bus going to or from school. I’ve seen several of my past students that have gone on to different schools or graduated and they still light up when they see me.

My first two and a half years of driving ended when COVID hit. Schools closed for two months, but I was side-lined as high-risk due to my age and paid out to the end of the school year. By that time I went to work delivering auto parts for a local franchise. Those first couple of years I approached my students as “them against me”. I considered it the “adversarial” approach. It really didn’t go well. So I stayed away from it for a year and a half losing my CDL-B. Then I heard there was a $2500 sign on bonus to come drive again. I didn’t want to pass that up, so that was my initiative to go back.

I had to go through the whole retraining process for my CDL-B again, but that was okay. Then about two months before the end of the school year I was back to driving two routes again. I found myself with a really good bunch of middle school students, but the elementary students were a challenge.

But God was working in me to improve my attitude. He showed me that the verse I referenced above was something I needed to take to heart. Kids truly are our heritage. That being so puts responsibility on us to take care of them and see that they are given as much of a positive light on life to grow by. That meant I’d have to change my adversarial thinking into a more relaxed and positive approach to my kids.

When school started back for the 2022-23 year I went to work on getting to know more about my kids and giving them attaboys and talking positive things to them. I got a new elementary route that school year. I had the same great middle school route.

This 2023-24 school year has given me a solidification of my approach. Last year I developed a simple thing. When my elementary students got to school I would tell each of them as they got off the bus to “Go forth and learn! Come back this afternoon a genius”. I got mostly mumbles that were like “I’ll never be a genius”. I kept it up all year. Then came this year. I started it with the same encouragement. Now only three or four weeks in I’m finding some of my elementary students are responding that they are now geniuses or working to be one. Even the saddest of students from last year has blossomed into a more talkative student. She has come out of her shell. Some funny things have come out of it when one of the new students to this school year heard my encouragement to become geniuses stopped in front of me when getting off and asked me what was a genius. I told him that geniuses are really smart people. When he got on that afternoon he informed me he was becoming a genius. I’ve told all my elementary students they have this ability to do whatever they desire to become. Then I heard my mom’s voice in my head. When I was in school she always told me I could do anything my heart desired to do. She never put limits on me. This inspired me, because now I’m doing the same thing to kids that aren’t even mine.

My middle school students are much the same. They are low-keyed, yet still, they are “middle schoolers”. They are coming of age from the playground sort to noticing each other in a hormonal way. I talk to them more and find in doing so they will warm up to me and talk more to me. In getting to know them I get to speak to them positively one on one. I only hope they not only listen but heed my words of encouragement.

Children truly are our heritage. If we don’t raise them with self-respect and with the ability to see they can do whatever their hearts desire, they will fail or at their very best find it hard to achieve their goals in life. With all the abuse of children today it behooves us to take a moment to examine how we want to leave this world. We already see what happens when we don’t instill a positive moralistic approach to life. Let each of us take time to examine ourselves first to ensure we are on the right path. Once we have that right (from looking into Biblical meditation, I might add) then we will find it imperative to instill it into our future. .our children.