A Prayer For Your Child’s Teacher
It’s August and the beginning of the school year is upon us. If you’re like me, you have a list of required school supplies that you have been gathering and sticking into backpacks, checking off items like binders, glue sticks, and Kleenex. But, while I’m collecting Amazon packages and checking out the dollar stop and stuffing things into my kids’ bags, I’m also hauling my own items to my classroom.
For the last eight years, I have taught high school. And each year, as I ready my room, and prepare for a new group of teenagers to walk through my doors, I find myself praying for them. I sharpen pencils, arrange desks, and test out my expo markers from the year before. I pray for their safety, for their anxieties, and for their hopes, dreams, and goals. I pray for our year together, and that I can teach them something, but that I can also learn from them. I pray for their hearts and minds to be open as they enter our classrooms and that they grow into who the Lord desires for them to be.
This is my second year with my own child in school. In a few days he’ll walk through the doors of a new classroom into the life of a new teacher. And as I have packed his pencils and Clorox wipes, I have tried to pray for his teacher just as I pray for my students.
The beginning of the school year can feel scary, as a student, as a teacher, and as a parent. Prayer allows us to intercede for the people in our lives, and to ask God to shed His grace on them. I invite you to join me in praying for your child’s teacher:
Lord,
As we enter into a new school year, we enter into a new classroom, and we enter into the life of a new teacher. Give her joy, allow her love of her students and her subjects to show in all that she does. Give her peace, let her know that You are with her and that she is doing enough. Give her patience, with each of her students and what they all bring to her room. Give her gentleness and kindness and goodness as she navigates this school year and the different challenges that it will bring. Be with her family, be with her health, keep her safe and strong for our kids. Help her to hear your voice, to be open to your will, and to be faithful, to walk in your ways as she guides and molds our children this school year. Remind her of her calling to teach and to love her students, and give her your grace, Lord, in the exciting moments and the difficult moments that she can turn to You.
Amen.
