Prayer For the School Year

As students head back to classrooms
As educators make those classrooms ready
Bless them all as they begin a new year and a new journey

Watch over the little ones who are at the beginning of their journey
Who are entering pre-school, nursery school and kindergarten
Help them to learn how to work with each other
How to support one another
How to be friends
And how to color within the lines (and outside them too)

Watch over the elementary school students
Grant them grace and the ability to learn 
To read stories and write their own
To add (understanding for each other)
Subtract (anger)
Multiply (kindness for all people)
And divide (intolerance)
To color within the lines 
But to never forget that coloring outside is just as fine

Watch over the middle school students
As they enter a transitional phase from child to young adult
Teach them to value others and themselves
Let them see that different isn't good or bad
But just different
Help the prepare for the challenges of adolesence
Open their minds 
To see that there is more to learning than just textbooks

Watch over the high school students
No longer children
Young adults ready to take on the world
Grant them courage to do so
Grant them knowledge (not test scores)
Give them confidence (and not cockiness)
Open their eyes to the possibilities that life has to offer

Watch over the college students
The graduate students
The vocational students
The "non-traditional" students of all ages
Instill in them valor as they travel down new roads
And face a society that is not often kind
Teach them that there are many paths 
Each that can offer it's own valuable lessons
And each one must travel their own
To face the world with conviction
To work towards creating a better place

Watch over the teachers
ALL teachers and educators
And those who assist and support
Grant them patience 
Give them tolerance
Impart in them the forbearance they will need as they face changing challenges each day
Guide them as they guide others
Instill in them peace (even as they face chaos)
Bless them with a loving spirit
Nurture them as they will nurture others
Renew in them their love of education
Love them as they love their students
Refresh them every day

As they all head back to their classrooms
Fill their hearts and their minds with an ongoing love of learning
Guide them as they grow
Grant them compassion
Comfort them when they need comforting
Encourage them to comfort others
Show them that what they do, each and every day makes a difference