Prayers for All Involved with Education

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ at Pax Pres, and to all people,

Last week, January 6th prompted a written prayer from me related to everything that led up to and happened during the electoral confirmation on Capitol Hill. So many people and aspects of our daily lives need prayer at this time in our current national and global moment. I hope to write a prayer once per week on a whole variety of matters - like today, we’ll pray for teachers and everyone involved in education and schoolwork especially during the pandemic. In future weeks, we’ll pray for other matters and groups of people. On a related note, a church member made me aware of this Global Day of Prayer and Fasting for mothers, tomorrow, Wednesday January 13th if you wish to participate.

Humbly in Christ,

Pastor Matt

Almighty God, you created each and every one of us in your image. Though we take that truth for granted sometimes, it was a radical way of viewing humanity in the ancient world: that everyone - young, old, healthy, ill, rich, poor, male, female - has an inherent dignity in the sight of God and of people. God, thank you that we are each knit together in our mothers’ wombs, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by you.

As your image-bearers, God, one way you call us to steward our lives is through education of people of all ages: teaching children and adults alike. God, teaching has always been a joyful yet arduous calling. But you yourself, O Lord, have watched from heaven and you have seen just how devastating a toll the global pandemic has taken on all teachers, educators, and education administrators. Lord, be merciful to each and every one of them.

God, we give you thanks for teachers of all types: preschool, elementary, middle, high school, college, graduate level, and more. Public, private, charter, home, and all other types of school. They need your sustaining grace to keep them going through this pandemic and even long after it’s over. Through Jesus, you call all who are weary and burdened to come to you and find true rest and an easy yoke for their souls. God, through your Spirit grant all teachers a rest and renewal they desperately need.

God, in addition to the ways teachers invest in the lives of others’ children and peers, they too have families of their own. We pray, God, for all teachers whose own loved ones have died or been impacted by Covid-19. We remember teachers themselves who have lost their lives to Covid-19 or any other cause in 2020. We lift to you their grieving families and friends. May your Holy Spirit be their one true comfort and may the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ be their one true hope.

God, we give thanks and pray too for administrators of all types who make the work of educators possible. Together with teachers, administrators have had to make one unprecedented decision after another in the pandemic. God of wisdom, grant them peace in the decisions they have made in the last year; and grant them your wisdom and discernment in dozens of decisions that are still yet to be made this year. God, for all of us who don’t make the decisions but live with them, grant us grace and patience with our teachers and administrators. We confess, God, that every one of us - myself included - has had our moments of complaining about education decisions made in the last year. Teach us to work together, not against each other, in supporting our educators and administrators in making more pandemic-related school decisions that are in the best interests of all: students, parents, guardians, and school teachers and staff. Only you, God, can work that kind of unifying Spirit between people of differing opinions. So Holy Spirit, come and unify us.

God, we also pray especially for students and families who’ve been disproportionately affected by Covid-19’s toll on education. Some of us and our kids, God, are affected by Covid-19, but by your grace, we will bounce back relatively easily. But we pray for those who, before Covid-19, already had certain cards stacked against them: for those whose zip code is stacked against them. For those whose finances are stacked against them. For those whose broken home situations are stacked against them. For those whose ethnicity or skin color is unjustly stacked against them. We lift to you all who have experienced an unimaginably higher toll on their ability to learn and grow in 2020. In their lives, God, write your story of redemption, restoration, and abundant resilience and growth through the power of Jesus. May many children and adults in school have stories to tell of your grace in years to come. God, show each of us how we can be better champions for those who were already set back before the pandemic.

God, in Jesus you are our teacher, our rabbi, our shepherd. Bless all people who have been given the humbling responsibility of teaching and shepherding lives young and old. Through this ongoing crisis, graciously make more and more people aware of their need for the salvation of Jesus. All this we pray in His loving and powerful name. Amen.