Thirteen-year-old Isabella caught her first glimpse of Bring Your Bible to School Day in Brio magazine.
At first, she didn’t think much of it. But a week later her magazine fell out of a drawer where she’d tucked it away.
Well, that’s kind of odd, she thought.
Isabella picked up the magazine and gave it another look. That’s when she saw Bring Your Bible to School Day advertised again.
“It felt like God was kind of nudging at my heart that I should do it,” she says. “So I said, ‘OK, God. I’m going to do this.’ ”
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Eventful Event
With just a couple of weeks until the big day, Isabella had some planning to do. She got her parents’ backing and went straight to the school counselors, principal and other faculty members to get the ball rolling.
At first, she didn’t hear back. Her parents encouraged her to try again. Because Isabella didn’t give up, the faculty eventually allowed her to hang posters and promote the event.
“Just knowing that my parents are always behind me… that’s really encouraging to me,” she says.
Isabella lives in a small Minnesota town and has a tight-knit group of friends. To get people involved, Isabella informed her church’s youth group and passed out fliers to classmates to put on their lockers. Other students had put up posters to promote clubs and events, so that gave her the right, too. When she walked into the cafeteria and saw the posters, Isabella was filled with joy.
“It was like a really cool sense of pride,” she says. “I was actually getting somewhere with it… getting God into our school.”
When the day came, she and about 20 other students took a bold step of faith and brought their Bibles to school. In addition, she and her classmates prayed around the flagpole to give glory to God before classes began.
“Just praying in front of the flagpole showed that Christians aren’t afraid to share the Gospel,” she says. “We aren’t afraid to talk to people about our faith.”
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Bring Your Bible, Again
Bring Your Bible to School Day wasn’t the first outreach Isabella had promoted at school. Previously, she and a group of students organized a service project that raised $500 to support families in other countries. The money funded a child’s school supplies, a year’s worth of clean water for one person and a goat for one family.
Isabella’s heart to help others is inspired by her faith. “We need to share the Bible with everyone because God isn’t just for us,” she says.
After last year’s Bring Your Bible to School Day event, many kids at the school gained confidence in speaking openly about their faith in Jesus. And the more people talking about God, the better.
This year Isabella hopes more students get involved. She knows it may seem scary, but the results are worth it.
“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there,” Isabella says. “Even if other people are judging you, God isn’t. He’s really happy that you’re doing this for Him.”
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Bibles at School
Focus on the Family sponsors Bring Your Bible to School Day to equip students to know their religious rights and talk about God’s love with others. Be a part of it!
1. Go to BringYourBible.org to sign up. You can get a free guide, T-shirt designs, information and tips.
2. Let your principal know what you’re doing. As long as you don’t disrupt classes, you should have the right to hand out cards, hang posters, bring your Bible and talk to students about the event.
3. Encourage your friends to join you and pray.
4. On October 4, take your Bible to school. Read it during free time and discuss it with your classmates before or after school. Be prepared to answer questions and find important verses. You may even want to bring an extra Bible to share or give away.
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Know Your Rights
As a student in public school, you can:
—respectfully discuss your personal religious beliefs.
—invite other students to voluntarily join you in praying, reading the Bible or talking about faith during free time. But you can’t force them.
—pass out religious materials if other kinds of student materials are also being passed out.
—start a student-led and student-initiated religious club that meets outside of class.
—pray silently at lunch, in class or before tests.
