Praying for Back to School
My son Caleb amazes me with his courage.
Last year on a walk around the block, I asked him what he thought he would need most as we planned to leave a church we'd loved and served for a decade, the only church he remembers attending, to pack up our house and leave his neighborhood besties, and to start over relationally at a new church and new house. It was not without hardship and big emotions, but I found it really interesting that he could name what he needed: courage.
God totally answered Caleb's prayers and need. He's been resilient at times when I know he would have rathered thrown a pity party.
The biggest change of all is coming next week.
He's starting at a new school and entering middle school for the first time. Since our previous school district took elementary through 6th grade, he's starting middle while everyone else is returning to middle school. Until last week he knew not one student at his new school his age.
I tell you this because my heart is tender towards all of the kids returning to school in a few days and all the people who love and support them.
If the beginning of a new semester of school has you rattled, a little overstimulated, or anxious, I wrote these short prayers for you to use anytime you need to call on heaven to bring you peace.
A Prayer for Educators (from my heart):
Thank you, Lord, for the unsung heroes we call educators. Holy Spirit, wrap your arms around me and my fellow community servants. Supply us with everything we need to support our students. Give me extra capacity to love others and extra assurance that you equip the educators you've called. Protect me from the overwhelm of a new year and fill me with joy and expectancy about all the beyond-imagination things you will do through my teaching and leadership.
A Prayer for Parents and Family Members (that I’m praying too):
Lord, you love our students more than we do, which is hard to comprehend. And so, I pray I would trust your vigilance to protect my student. Help me to be the safe place they need to land every day after school. Give me the capacity for more compassion on what they are going through with supernatural understanding.
A Prayer for Students (I’m praying this over Caleb):
Lord, you love to catalyze young people to change the world! And so, I ask that you would spark a holy curiosity in my student—a longing for your goodness, an interest in your Word, a commitment to your ways. Strengthen them in their innermost being to face their challenges with Christlikeness. Grow them into God-honoring Christians who love others sincerely. And increase their resistance to the entrapments of sin. Remind them they are loved by you no matter what and your dream come true.
P.S. If this post is a support to you, be sure and share it with other prayer warriors who want to lift up educators, parents, and students.