Back to School Prayers
In the summer of 2020 my bishop asked if I'd craft a collection of Back to School Prayers in my new role as Scholar in Residence for Arts, Media, and Culture for the diocese. I was grateful for the opportunity and I ended up writing six prayers: for kids schooling at home and going off to school; for high school and college students; for parents, teachers, and school administrators.
Christianity Today offered to re-publish these prayers and requested a few new ones. I added a "Prayer for a New Day," a "Prayer for Nightly Care," a "Prayer for a Time of Pestilence," and a "Prayer for Teachers" that they might pray for themselves. My favorite perhaps is the "Prayer for Frustrated School-Related Relationships," of which there are plenty today and, I imagine, there will be plenty more in the weeks to come. The prayer is this:
"O Lord, you who told us that we would have trouble in this world, we confess to you our worries over things that we cannot control, our distress over things that seem wrongheaded, and our frustration with those who oppose us on things that we hold dearly. Grant us the ability to bear with one another in love, and may the peace of Christ guard our hearts, so that together we might trust your leading and walk in the way of unity that only the Spirit of God can make possible. Amen."
You can find all the prayers here.
You can also get a copy of the book, Prayers for the Pilgrimage (IVP, 2024), that includes the entire batch of prayers that I’ve written over the past years, including a host of prayers for children.
Yesterday I wrote a Prayer for the Bewitching Hour, which in our house is usually 5:00 PM, when our children magically turn into feral creatures and refuse to think logically about anything whatsoever. I figured a few of us might need such a prayer in our hour of need. Here it is:
"Dear God, I’m going crazy, please help me. Keep me from doing something dumb. Be with me. Speak your word of peace to my heart. HELP! AMEN! THANK YOU!"
(A last thing to share here. The good people at Trinity Anglican in Thomasville, Georgia, (and Catherine Miller in particular) took my Back to School prayers and gave them a graphic makeover. I've included below a few examples of them. As with all these prayers, please feel free to share them with anybody that might find them helpful in these strange and stressful times.)
