As soon as the Fourth of July is over, the stores begin putting out their “Back To School” items. They’ve probably been doing this for years, so you’d think we’d be used to it by now, but we aren’t. July is pretty much the middle of summer, not its end. We aren’t ready for school to start-not quite yet.

And we don’t have to be. The school year doesn’t begin for weeks. So why rush things?

There is still time for buying crayons-they’ll melt in the July heat anyway. There will be time for notebooks and pencils. Right now kids should be using sidewalk chalk and skipping hopscotch over their work.

Why rush things?

The school will begin-it always does, whether kids want it to or not. Then they will need earlier bedtimes and nightly baths. They’ll be making sure their homework is done and waking up by alarm clocks.

But not now. Please.

In the rest of this glorious summer, try to think about dropping a line by the riverbank, swimming in the pool, and catching lightning bugs. Because all too soon those summer pursuits will be pushed aside, be closed, or disappear for another season.

In the Bible, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3 that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

This season is summer and the activities are just waiting for you to indulge. We hope you enjoy every drop of summer.