Back to school is a time of excitement and new beginnings for children, parents and teachers. The Rev. Dr. W. David O. Taylor—our Scholar in Residence: Arts, Media, Culture—wrote special collect prayers to accompany you, strengthen your faith and lift your hearts as you embark on this new school year. Feel free to use them at home and as collects in your church service.
A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN GOING TO SCHOOL
Dear Jesus, you who promise to be with me always, I pray that you would be with me today as I go to school. Bless my going and my coming. Bless my learning and my playing. Please protect my heart from fear. Please keep me safe. Please give me good friends. Give me joy this day and thank you for loving me from head to toe. In your name. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN SCHOOLING AT HOME
Dear Jesus, you who promise to be with me always, I pray that you would be with me at home today as I do my school work. Please help me to do my best, help me not to feel alone, and help me to be patient with my family. Give me joy this day and thank you for loving me from head to toe. In your name. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS
O Lord, you who promise to be with me always, be with me this day as I begin my schoolwork. Keep me in health, I pray, and keep me from harm. In all that I do and say, may I love you with all my heart, mind, soul and strength, and may I love my neighbor as myself, so that I might fulfill your purposes for me and your calling on my life as a student. In Christ’s name. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR PARENTS
O Lord, you who promise to guide us through the wilderness and to protect us through the storm, we ask that you would make us wise where we cannot clearly see the way forward, make us brave where we feel afraid, make us strong in the face of our weakness, and make possible what to us seems impossible, so that we might joyfully entrust ourselves and our children into your tender care in these trying and troubling times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR TEACHERS
O Lord, you who have called and equipped the teachers in our community, we pray for them today. Watch over them, provide for them, guide them, sustain them. May you be their sun and shield, so that they might do the work that you have entrusted to them and sense your care in these uncertain times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
O God, you who have promised wisdom to all who would ask it, we pray today for school administrators, that you would grant them clarity of mind, unity of spirit, strength of will, a heart of wisdom and the gift of your truth-bearing Spirit, so that they might be enabled to make decisions that lead to the flourishing of their teachers, staff, and students and to the wellbeing of the whole community. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
For families who may want additional helps for prayer this fall, W. David O. Taylor and his wife Phaedra created a set of illustrated prayer cards that offer both adults and children an opportunity to pray in light of key themes in the Psalms—themes such as honesty and community, sadness and joy, justice and enemies, life and death, and so on. Find them here.
