A Prayer/Blessing for the New School Year 2009-2010

Every new school year I am reminded how time flies. The new school year is like, as Wikipedia says of Pink Floyd's "Time," "a memento mori describing the phenomenon in which time seems to pass more quickly as one ages." It's always kind of hard for me.

But here is my blessing for the new school year – it’s a prayer in the form of a blessing or benediction:

O Father:
May you keep our children safe from harm as they get to and from school each day by bus and by car
May you energize and excite our teachers for a new year of teaching, and give them a renewed love for their subjects, a love for their students, patience with central office edicts and low pay, and a renewed sense of their great calling
May you give the students a true love of learning new things in each of the areas they are called to study this year
May you moderate their homework so our students can get enough sleep
May you give wisdom and courage to the school board as it oversees the central office staff
May you give principles and assistant principals wisdom, strength, and energy to maintain order, motivate students and teachers, intervene rightly in crises, and address difficult issues each day
May you suppress gossip in the classroom and teacher’s lounges, and may you give our students respect for their teachers, and teachers for their principals
May you provide help for the overworked and underpaid throughout the system, particularly the support staff, and cause both students and teachers to show their appreciation for hard work done
May you protect each and every school from violence
May you suppress bullies of all kinds
May you give each student a growing and exciting sense of how you may use them and their gifts in serving others in this broken and fallen world
May you give those you are faltering, failing, and dropping out, new strength and vision to see a better future
May you cause students to reject drugs, sex, violence, and meanness and give help to those who are trapped in any of the above
May you help our guidance counselors, overwhelmed by so many students, have wisdom and strength to see and know and understand each person under their charge
May you give our superintendent every blessing of life, renewed purpose and vision, and primary concern for the students of Guilford County
May you call many new and talented young men and women into the great calling of teaching
Into Your hands I commit the school year, 2009/2010.
Amen

Prayer for the City

Last night in a prayer group that I am a part of we spent a fair bit of time in prayer for the new city council and mayor. (I joked before we prayed that only one person I voted for actually won!) Anyway we prayed in particular for Mayor Yvonne Johnson, that she would be an instrument of unity and peace for the council and for the city. We prayed that despite party affiliations or philosophical differences about government that the new council would unite around the key matters that face our city, and that God would lead the council to know and agree upon what those most important issues were. We prayed for God's hand of protection against the ever present temptations that come with power. We prayed for a new spirit of cooperation and openness between the council and the press and the citizenry in general. We prayed for a new era of humble mutually deferential servant leadership. We prayed for the walls of division that plague our city to be torn down. We prayed for the good of the city.

On a personal note, politically speaking, if we were to sit and compare notes, I would imagine that I am more of a social and fiscal conservative than Yvonne Johnson. Like, duh. I have never met her, but through seeing her and reading about her through the various media I have always liked her. I hope and pray that her own expressed goals of developing consensus around key issues will come to fruition. I think she is a good person for the job (even though I voted for Billy - here's to ya big guy!) and I have high hopes for a new period of life in a new city council.

A Prayer/Blessing for the New School Year

Well, we have sent two daughters back to college, another starts 12th grade at Northwest next week, and we have just ordered curriculum for my 5th grade homeschooled daughter. Every school year I am reminded how time flies. The new school year is like, as Wikipedia says of Pink Floyd's "Time," "a memento mori describing the phenomenon in which time seems to pass more quickly as one ages."

It's always hard.

But here is my blessing for the new school year – it’s a prayer in the form of a blessing or benediction:

O Father…
May you keep our children safe from harm as they get to and from school each day by bus and by car
May you energize and excite our teachers for a new year of teaching, and give them a renewed love for their subjects, a love for their students, patience with central office edicts and low pay, and a renewed sense of their great calling
May you give the students a true love of learning new things in each of the areas they are called to study this year
May you moderate their homework so our students can get enough sleep
May you give wisdom and courage to the school board as it oversees the central office staff
May you give principles and assistant principals wisdom, strength, and energy to maintain order, motivate students and teachers, intervene rightly in crises, and address difficult issues each day
May you suppress gossip in the classroom and teacher’s lounges, and may you give our students respect for their teachers, and teachers for their principals
May you provide help for the overworked and underpaid throughout the system, particularly the support staff, and cause both students and teachers to show their appreciation for hard work done
May you protect each and every school from violence
May you suppress bullies of all kinds
May you give each student a growing and exciting sense of how you may use them and their gifts in serving others in this broken and fallen world
May you give those you are faltering, failing, and dropping out, new strength and vision to see a better future
May you cause students to reject drugs, sex, violence, and meanness and give help to those who are trapped in any of the above
May you help our guidance counselors, overwhelmed by so many students, have wisdom and strength to see and know and understand each person under their charge
May you give our superintendent every blessing of life, renewed purpose and vision, and primary concern for the students of Guilford County
May you call many new and talented young men and women into the great calling of teaching
Into Your hands I commit the school year, 2007/2008.
Amen