Lord, each of my students was created by You, birthed safely into the world, and kept alive until now.
You call them "wonderful".
And now, in Your sovereignty, You have placed them in my classroom for 180 days...to be loved, appreciated, taught, challenged, encouraged.
You gave me the gift of teaching so that I can give them the gift of knowledge.
You will love each one for their whole lives, but you have tasked me to love each one for 180 days.
On each of these days,
Help me to respect them,
be gracious to them,
treat them with dignity,
assume and expect the best of them,
enjoy them,
and become a safe place for them.
I will forget most of their names once they leave me, but You will forever remember their names, because You chose their names.
In this public school, for the next 180 days, no law or authority can stop me from praying for them or loving them in Jesus' name. I get to show them what YOU are like.
Please fill me, enable me, empower me to love each student well on each of these 180 days.
I hope this prayer resonates with my teacher friends out there. For every teacher, it is a privilege to do such meaningful work as we get to do every day. What we lack in financial compensation, we receive in personal fulfillment. But for those of us who love Jesus, it is especially significant work, because we are under-cover agents of the grace of God in each student's life, whether they know it or not, whether they want it or not. We are pushing back the darkness. Just try to stop us.