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School begins today in many parts of the United States. May you all have a blessed and fruitful school year.
ChurchYear.net has a very nice page of prayers for teachers, students and schools, including the following prayer by David Bennett:
Father of all mercies
We ask that you would bless
the youngest and littlest of learners,
the most helpless and powerless of persons,
with Your infinite and loving mercy,
granting them the strength to learn, concentrate,
and act appropriately towards their teachers and fellow students.
We also ask that You would watch over them,
at home and at school
and grant them proper direction so that they may learn
of Your wonderful virtues.
We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen
www.nicksenger.com
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It’s that time of year where new clothes are purchased and organized supplies are awaiting the big event; the first day of school.
Whether you or not you are sad to see the summer come to a close, a new school year is upon us all.
It’s a fresh slate and a time of new opportunities.
As a parent of two children heading to school, I am especially sensitive of this experience and am looking for ways to ease the transition for us all.
But before I do anything else, I am committing to pray every day starting August 1st for my children’s new school year.
Will you join me for 30 days of prayer for your child and the new school year?
So get your tissues ready {or maybe I am the only one who is teary in sending the kids off to school}, and hit your knees. Let’s dedicate 30 days to pray for the new school year.
Table of contents
- 1 Day 1- Spiritually
- 2 Day 2- Relationship to the teacher
- 3 Day 3- Relationship to peers
- 4 Day 4- Wisdom
- 5 Day 5- Conviction
- 6 Day 6- Honesty
- 7 Day 7- Kindness
- 8 Day 8- Compassion
- 9 Day 9- Being a servant
- 10 Day 10- Humility
- 11 Day 11- Desire to learn
- 12 Day 12- Strongest subject
- 13 Day 13- Weakest subject
- 14 Day 14- Confident learner
- 15 Day 15- Learning issues exposed
- 16 Day 16- Emotional growth
- 17 Day 17- Sensitivity
- 18 Day 18- Evangelical spirit
- 19 Day 19- Become a good listener
- 20 Day 20- Self-control
- 21 Day 21- Think before speaking
- 22 Day 22- Guarded mind
- 23 Day 23- Softened heart
- 24 Day 24- Quick to forgive
- 25 Day 25- Slow to anger
- 26 Day 26- Joy
- 27 Day 27- Strength
- 28 Day 28- Safety
- 29 Day 29- Protection
- 30 Day 30- Balance
- 31 Grab a printable copy of the 30 Days of Prayer for the new School Year FREE for subscribers to Faith Along the Way!
- 32 How do you prepare your children for back-to-school? What are your prayers for your children as they start a new year?
Day 1- Spiritually
Pray that your child will understand the Gospel and learn to apply biblical principles to every aspect of life.
Day 2- Relationship to the teacher
Pray that your child will develop a deep respect and appreciation for his/her teacher and will act respectful of all authority figures.
Day 3- Relationship to peers
Pray that your child will develop a close bond with his peers and that he/she will choose friends wisely.
Day 4- Wisdom
Pray that your child will develop the ability to discern right from wrong and put it into practice on a daily basis.
Day 5- Conviction
Pray that your child will be convicted by sin and be found out when he/she does wrong.
Day 6- Honesty
Pray that your child will desire to be honest, even when it’s hard or when he/she gets into trouble.
Day 7- Kindness
Pray that your child will treat others with kindness, even when it is not popular.
Day 8- Compassion
Pray that your child will be compassionate, and show the love of Jesus to those who are hurting.
Day 9- Being a servant
Pray that your child learns to be a servant and sees the beauty of being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Day 10- Humility
Pray that your child learns to be humble and not to brag about his/her success.
Day 11- Desire to learn
Pray that your child will develop a love of learning and desire to be a life-long learner.
Day 12- Strongest subject
Pray that your child will be challenged in his/her strongest subject and will be pushed out of his/her comfort zone.
Day 13- Weakest subject
Pray that your child will make progress and tremendous growth in an area of weakness.
Day 14- Confident learner
Pray that your child will be confident in his/her abilities as a student.
Day 15- Learning issues exposed
Pray that any learning issues or suspected weakness will be brought to light.
Day 16- Emotional growth
Pray that your child will mature in emotional stability and be comforted as their faith deepens in understanding.
Day 17- Sensitivity
Pray that your child will have a tender spirit and be will to help those in need.
Day 18- Evangelical spirit
Pray that your child will be excited to share the message of Jesus, no matter the cost.
Day 19- Become a good listener
Pray that God will open the ears of your child to hear the teacher and an open heart to listen to others.
Day 20- Self-control
Pray that your child will learn self-control and have the discipline to use it in even the toughest of situations.
Day 21- Think before speaking
Pray that your child will learn to guard their tongue and to think about words before speaking aloud.
Day 22- Guarded mind
Pray that your child will have a guarded mind and thoughts of the Lord will be planted, and not be easily uprooted.
Day 23- Softened heart
Pray that your child has a softened heart towards the gospel and will hear the good news with open ears.
Day 24- Quick to forgive
Pray that your child will be quick to extend grace when a wrong has been done to him/her.
Day 25- Slow to anger
Pray that your child will have a long fuse and not anger easily.
Day 26- Joy
Pray that your child will experience the joy of the Lord and not look for happiness in the things of the world.
Day 27- Strength
Pray that your child will have the strength to do what is right and do grow in physical strength as well.
Day 28- Safety
Pray that your child will be safe in sports, and on the playground.
Day 29- Protection
Pray that God will protect your child from harm’s way.
Day 30- Balance
Pray that your child will learn to balance responsibilities in school, home, and life with God’s help and strength.
Grab a printable copy of the 30 Days of Prayer for the new School Year FREE for subscribers to Faith Along the Way!
Mom’s Back-to-School Printable pack is exclusively for subscribers, and will be e-mailed to you in a welcome e-mail. Be sure to check your spam box if you don’t see it right away!
How do you prepare your children for back-to-school? What are your prayers for your children as they start a new year?
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About Sarah Ann
Welcome to Faith Along the Way! I am a redeemed child of God and perfectly imperfect in every area of my life. Wife to Hubs, we’ve battled the storms of Cancer, infertility, adoption & Autism together the past 10 years and praise God for his continued guidance. I hope you’ll join us on this journey through life as we trust God with faith along the way.
faithalongtheway.com
Dear God,
I have three kids and today they all went to school, the smallest one for the very first time. You already know that, though, because you’re omniscient. Now that the big yellow bus has consumed my children, I’m sitting here alone in a quiet house, trying to distract myself with work and Facebook. It’s sort of working, except for the fact that my stupid eyes keep leaking.
God, I really wish I was one of the moms skipping back from the bus stop humming “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” I thought when this time finally came, I would be. But I don’t feel like celebrating. There was no skipping home. I spent the whole time trying not to ugly cry in front of my neighbors, so I just kept making a weird face and sniffling.
I need to ask you for some things for this coming school year, because while my kids are ready for it — I’m not. My husband is being sweet and supportive and keeps telling me how great everything is going to be, but I can’t help being a little sad about the fact that my babies are now big kids. I love them so much and they’re out there in the world now. I can’t protect them and I’m trying not to freak out about that.
Please God, keep them safe from the following:
- Mean kids who might single them out.
- Feeling all alone on the playground (once in a while is OK, but please not every day).
- Having a teacher who doesn’t like them and makes them feel bad about themselves.
- Any virus that causes vomiting.
- Crazy people with guns.
- Classmates who like to experiment with things they’re not actually ready for.
- Bus accidents.
- Head lice.
- Not making it to the bathroom on time.
- Serial sex offenders who somehow managed to evade the school district’s stringent criminal background check policies and get a job where they have access to kids.
- Forgetting how awesome they already are and trying to be like someone else.
And please, help them to:
- Be nice to everyone, especially those people who could use some extra niceness.
- Remember their stuff because last year they forgot everything always.
- Learn how to ask for help if they don’t understand something.
- Be respectful and appreciative of their school and all the people who work there.
- Try to pay attention and not stare at a spot on the wall for 40 minutes when they get bored.
- Care about learning. Their teachers and their dad and I can do a lot, but we can’t make them care.
- Tell me about their days and what’s going on, especially the boy. Based on what he told me last year, if I didn’t watch him get on the bus in the morning and get off the bus in the afternoon, I wouldn’t even know he went to school.
- Try hard and have a good attitude. We care a lot more about that than we do about their grades.
- Make real friends. Even if it’s only one or two. Friends who lift them up and never push them down.
That last thing? That’s a quote I stole from one of my friends. Thank you for them, by the way. They are a huge blessing and I’m grateful for them every day. They’re helping me raise these kids and they’re keeping me out of the Nervous Hospital. But you already know that.
Please keep all of our babies safe this year. Please let them feel just enough fear and embarrassment and awkwardness that it makes them funny and compassionate, but not so much that it leaves lasting scars. Please let them have some moments that are really, really awesome. When crappy things happen, help them find a lesson in it. And lastly, please don’t let them get so big this year that they no longer want to snuggle with me on the couch, because that would break my heart forever. I just need a few more years of couch snuggles and I might be able to handle high school.
Amen.
Julianna W. Miner has three kids, ages 5, 9 and 11. She teaches at a college she couldn’t have gotten into because she made bad choices in high school. Her blog is Rants from Mommyland, where this post originally appeared.
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Thank you for participating in our Maundy Thursday Day of Prayer for the global Christian school movement. We are overwhelmed by the number of you who joined us to pray for our students, our schools, and our nations. Over 45 countries around the world were represented, hundreds of prayer requests were shared on the global prayer map, and thousands of you joined our live recording of prayer and worship with Aaron Keyes. We hope you will join us in continuing to “pray without ceasing” that God would be with Christian schools, teachers, leaders, students, parents, and others who play such an essential part in the ministry of Christian education.
Here’s what your peers are saying…
“I wanted to share with you a wonderful story from our time of prayer last Thursday. We assembled our entire school at our outdoor cross on campus (PK-12, approximately 330 students) to pray for them. We held an invitation for any students who wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior, and at least a dozen students chose to do so. It was a fantastic way to begin our Easter vacation! Thank you for promoting and organizing this event. It was a special time for us at Modesto Christian!” —Jonathan Burton, Superintendent/HS Principal, Modesto Christian School
“This was not just a day of prayer – I believe it was a spiritual shift in the Christian education movement. When we unite together around the world, asking God to act on our behalf to fulfill His mission, we let the enemy know we are laying claim to the ground and students God has given us. The work that we do cannot be completed alone and requires the unity of our hearts and minds to stay encourage, effective, and yielded to what God wants to do in Christian education. We are excited to hear of what God revealed during this time and the miracles that will follow.” —Michelle Worley, Executive Director of Operations & Faculty Instructor, School of Education, Liberty University
You can stay connected with the movement by…
- Continuing to visit the prayer map to pray for your fellow Christians around the world.
- Encouraging others by sharing your school’s prayer story on social media using the hashtag #SchoolsThatPray.
- Following us on Facebook to see how Christian schools all over the world have joined in with this prayer movement.
Worship and prayer with Aaron Keyes
In addition to joining us in prayer, thousands of people joined us for a time of live worship and prayer with Aaron Keyes, who lead a time of worship at Bethlehem Christian Academy in Bethlehem, GA. Aaron is a gifted worship leader and song writer. He and his band have traveled both nationally and internationally, leading worship and training leaders. Watch the video below!
www.acsi.org