Lord, as the children, staff, and faculty return to schools this year, bless them and keep them.  Make Your face shine upon them.  Give them peace.

Give them peace, God, when they enter the building and when they leave.  Protect them from people who would harm them in any way – physical, mental, emotional, any way.

Give them equity in access to resources.  Let race and socioeconomic status not determine who gets a good education and who doesn’t.

Allow the parents to recognize the school employees want what’s best for their children.

Let the school employees see the children as individual humans in need of love.

Help everyone see the sacrifices all parties make in the name of a better future for our children.

Let the village recognize all of the children as theirs.  Help us to remember that a well-educated populace makes for a better world.

Keep the push for standardization from bastardizing education.

Help everyone to remember that high schoolers, while adult size and full of adult desires, are still children who need nurturance and guidance.

Break the stronghold of the school to prison pipeline.  Education is intended to liberate, not incarcerate.

Bring joy and learning and love and light to each classroom, each building, each district, each person.

Dole out wisdom and common sense generously, and show people how to use these gifts.

Bless each child with a full belly and a warm, protected place to sleep.  Give them homes filled with love, shield them from violence, and provide them with an environment that allows them to focus on learning and not needing to be adults and serve as in loco parentis to their siblings.

Bless each teacher with enough resources and enough time and friendly colleagues and understanding principals.  Bless each teacher’s family to feel supported and loved, even when the teacher in the house puts in long hours and longer money for the love of students.

Give us a school year without a shooting or any other type of horrific massacre.

Help kids feel safe at school.  Help everyone feel safe at school.

Be glorified, Lord, in all that happens this school year.  Amaze us.  Shower us with Your grace and mercy.  Help us to serve You by serving others.

I ask these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

And amen.