It has been one year since I started a new job at our daughters’ school. One year of working alongside teachers and administrators who I now know are choosing to do an exceedingly difficult job. One year of learning alongside students who have good days and bad days, sometimes within the same seven hours.
School is a challenge, for teachers and students. In my role in our school office, I’ve felt driven to pray more than in any job I’ve ever had. These are some of the specific ways I’m praying as we start a new school year:
For parents, from those sending a new kindergartner to school for the first time, to the ones facing a graduation in nine months. Transitions are hard, especially when the children we send off still seem so vulnerable. Help us, Lord, to change well. Compel us to trust you with our children. Help us loosen our grip when it should be loosened, but keep us sharp and wise to the messages they’re hearing away from home. Infuse our homes with the hope of the gospel.
For administrators, many who didn’t have much time to shake off the last school year before preparing for the one ahead. In the face of all their plans, remind them the outcomes are ultimately in your hands. Help them lean on you. Give them words of peace to speak when tensions arise. Renew their joy when challenging situations threaten to steal it.
For teachers, who have spent their summers stenciling and cutting and moving and shuffling. Bend their hearts to your will for the school year ahead. Give them new measures of faith and grace. Renew their strength regularly. For those that already know you, strengthen their resolve to love their students well and faithfully serve families in their care this year. For those that don’t, put parents and others in their paths who will point them to Jesus.
For students, Lord, soften their hearts. Help them brush off any remaining dust and rust from summer and focus their minds on the year ahead. Put them in the paths of people who will protect and love and nurture them. Guide their friendships and give them kind words to say to one another.
Compel us to pray continually for the teachers and students we know, Lord, and remind us that this school year, like every year, is in your hands.
– Meredith Day Flynn is a wife and mother of two living in Springfield. She writes on the intersection of faith, family, and current culture.