As School Begins

 Will Norrid:

Father, as August arrives and the new school year begins, we ask that Your hand of grace would be upon our students, their families, their teachers, and our schools.

Our local schools commence tomorrow, and so today we lift up our students who are standing at the edge of a new beginning.

We give thanks for the youngest of our students who will be entering a wider world and encountering many firsts. We pray for their parents as well in this hard step of letting go and entrusting their children to others. As all the new arrives at once, we ask that these transitions would be smooth and even joyful for children and parents alike. May their first “first day of school” be blessed, and may a lifelong love of learning be kindled in each heart.

We pray for the children now moving swiftly through the years of elementary school. We remember the excitement and the rapid pace of learning, socializing, and maturing that marks these years, and we ask that these precious children may retain their wonder and innocence as we face troubled times in our world.

We lift up prayers of encouragement and support for the students entering the often awkward season of their middle school years. We pray for these students as they continue to form the friendships that will help to shape their characters. We ask a measure of strength for these young people as the temptations around them increase and their access to information grows. Grant them grace and discernment for all that they will face in this season of life. Bless their parents with patience and compassion as well in this phase of transition that often brings intense feelings and expanding interests. Help us as adults to offer support, counsel, and mentoring to the students in our lives.

We lift up teenagers moving into their young adulthood and who are pushing to experience more and more as they build for their futures and test life’s limits. High school and being a teenager can be times of great growth in freedom and fun, and yet we know too that dangers and hurts lie in wait as well. We pray that a spiritual deepening would accompany and compliment the many other milestones in this full season of part-time jobs, first romances, school activities, and dreaming of what is to come. Keep these young hearts in Your care, Lord, and protect and guide them on their journey.

We understand that for some students school is a sanctuary and solace while for others it is a place of struggle. We know that many students are facing drama and even danger in their homes. Help us to realize how little of life’s burdens we see on the surface that yet weigh so heavy on these young hearts. We ask that each student might be blessed with people who see, understand, and care. Grant us a goodness and grace toward the young people in our lives as we seek to encourage and support them. Let us remember our own complicated histories and current imperfections and out of those realizations, let us extend mercy and love to those struggling around us.

We give thanks in this season for faithful parents, loving families, compassionate communities, and caring teachers. For all of us, each day brings something new. In this season when so many are experiencing so much newness, help us to have an extra measure of grace and patience. Let us be reminded of Your presence and be strengthened by the reality of Your nearness.

In an unpredictable world, we ask that every student would feel safe and secure as they move through the school year. Protect and watch over our campuses, our bus routes, our school trips, club events, and our athletic/band competitions.

We pray for each teacher who has spent these blistering summer days preparing a classroom, planning lessons and activities, and making intentional choices for the arriving year. We recognize that it takes a special person to be asked to do more tasks (often with fewer resources) and to show up each day with a smile and with love. We pray our teachers might receive the support they need and be blessed with the encouraging experience of inspiring their students and seeing their progress. May You strengthen them to lean in and keep going amid the difficult days that each school year brings.

We pray for our school boards, administrators, counselors, school resource officers, coaches, bus drivers, and support staff who will be present in each hallway and office and gym and library and cafeteria. Equip each one with compassion and kindness for all our children- especially for the kids who will need such support the most.

We ask for all of us a greater sense of grace and perspective as we walk alongside the young people placed in our lives. May You, as our Father and Beloved Teacher, show us how to love and teach our children well.

Through Christ we pray, amen.