Back To School Prayers Of The Community
At AUMC, we are are praying for everyone heading back to school. We asked parents, teachers, nurses, ministers, professors, administrators and all of those involved with school to write prayers for us to consider.
From Craig (a parent)
Holy God,
Our children have returned to their classrooms after a summer of fun.
With the return to school comes both excitement and anxiety.
While summer is a time to explore, we know that it will continue as students return to learning. May both the excitement and anxiety that resides within also fuel the drive for exploration that is needed for our children’s educational and mental growth.
As our kids return to school, we leave them in the hands of teachers, coaches and administrators. Holy God may your hands be over those educators as they guide our children. May our children’s minds be open to new ideas.
The new school year also brings the joy of seeing old friends and making new. We pray that our children will be examples of love to all those they encounter.
Finally, God, we ask that you keep your protective hands over our children. The book of Psalms reminds us that “children are a gift from the Lord.” May you watch over our own gifts during the school year.
Thank you for the gift of our children and thank you for the gift of your love. May our love for you, for our children, and for our neighbor be on full display throughout the school year.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
From Brittany (UTD Campus Minister)
Loving God,
We lift up our college students. We know college can be a time of life that is exciting, complex, challenging, joyous, perspective-shifting, and transformational - often all at once. We pray that college students know that they are surrounded by the love and care of so many people, and that they are never alone because you are with them.
It can be common to lose sight of who we are - in the fullness of how you created us, with our unique gifts and identities. Help our college students to surround themselves with the people and groups that will help them to live with integrity and alive-ness. Help them to find "their people" - to find their clubs, majors, sports teams, and other extracurriculars that help them align most fully with who they are. In the midst of all the change they are experiencing, help them to stand on the solid ground of your love.
We pray especially for the newly graduated high school seniors starting college for the very first time. We pray for the transfer students who are moving to new colleges and universities. We pray for those who are needing a fresh start. We pray that they will feel and experience your peaceful and grounding presence, stronger than any anxieties they are carrying.
And finally God, please help us at Synergy Wesley Foundation and the more than a thousand other United Methodist college ministries around the world, that are preparing for our outreach and ministry with college students this school year. Help us to connect with college students in meaningful ways, so that they know there is a faith home for them - on campus through Synergy Wesley Foundation and off-campus through Arapaho UMC, so they have a supportive faith community and home-away-from-home during their college years.
We give you thanks for the opportunity and blessing to walk alongside college students during this special and sacred time in their life's journey, and to serve with them in such vital and impactful ways.
Amen
From Shannon (a parent)
Dear God,
I pray your blessings on all our students as they begin a new school year. May their curiosity lead them to learn more about your creation, including the unique gifts they can offer in this world. May their ears, eyes and brains be tuned in to listen and learn so that they may continue to grow into the special people you created them to be. May their bodies feel attended to so that they will be ready for varied experiences. And may they have enough moments of playfulness and positive connections to enrich and nourish them throughout their days. In your all-encompassing love I pray. Amen.
From Catherine (a school nurse)
God, give me the wisdom, patience and compassion to treat each student that comes my way.
Help me to know the best course of action to treat each child whatever the ailment and let me respond quickly and efficiently in urgent situations
Children are your most precious treasure and you’ve entrusted many to my care. Let me hold them in the same regard that you hold your all of your children.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve in this capacity for another school year. May I be a supplement, a needed one, at a house for learning for your burgeoning young adults.
Amen
From Mark (a university professor)
God,
You created us with a sense of curiosity, inquiry, and wonder.
Thank you for the gift of working with and guiding students in their inquiries.
Thank you for the opportunity to advance knowledge and understanding through our own inquiries.
May our classrooms, labs, libraries, and workspaces be places for open exploration and journeys to truth and wisdom.
May our teaching and research stir us to love you and our neighbor more deeply.
And may it all be for your glory.
Amen
From Clelia (a maestra/teacher)
God, here I am. Presente.
Same classroom, same desks, even the same old rug…
Yet,it's a new school year, and a new set of niños y niñas will come through the door. I don’t know them yet, but I can visualize their smiles and their eagerness to be here, their safe place. It’s a new school year and I am their new maestra. God, let us create a circle of trust that will multiply in growth and learning.
God, I also think of the newcomers, those who will show up for the very first time to our Texas school. You know their journey, what they saw and experienced. I welcome them, still I wonder… Will they be interested in learning to read and write? They just endured the impossible. They made it here! Are they finally safe? God, be the reason they feel loved and sheltered here, in my classroom with their new friends. Reading and writing will open doors of opportunities they never knew existed.
God, here I am. Use me.
I pray that my classroom will be a haven of safety for all my students. There is no meaningful learning without the assurance of belonging. Each child comes with a story, their story. Partner with me, God, to unfold the chapter that I get to help write this year. Who is in my classroom this school year? A future bilingual teacher? A doctor? An activist? A pastora? Use me, God. Let’s shape our community’s future together.
I also pray for strength, endurance, patience and motivation. This is not an easy job, God. Calm my mind during those times that deadlines are drowning me. Throughout the testing season, remind me that numbers and scores do not define my value or the value of my students. Equip me with compassion and understanding for my co-teachers, principals and school helpers. We are in this race together. Cover us with your supernatural protection. We carry the future in our hands.
God, here I am. Allow me to wholeheartedly live my purpose.
Finally, let me, the maestra, live wholeheartedly in the months to come knowing that your presence covers the ordinary moments that make up a meaningful life. My job as a maestra is ordinary, but the task ahead of me is extraordinary. With your help, this will be a purposeful academic year.
Here I am, God.
Amen