My palms sweaty, I faced the class. Twenty faces stared back at me. Some bored, some tired, many equally nervous. I paced to the whiteboard, picked up the dry erase marker, and wrote “Mrs. Cole.”
“Good morning, class. I’m Mrs. Cole, and I’ll be your writing teacher this semester.”
Even after fifteen years of teaching, I’m always nervous on the first day. Those butterflies that plagued my stomach during my 8th grade presentation, return on my first day of school. Every. Single. Year. Yes, I love teaching, but those first days are hard every time.
As we’re praying over our children, we need to remember that their teachers need our prayers, too. We often worry or complain about the teachers our schools or co-ops choose instead of turning to one of the best tools God has given us to serve both our children and their teachers—prayer.
Anyone leading our children needs to be bathed in prayer.
So what are we to pray for teachers?
Wisdom and Insight
This is something I pray for myself and for my sons’ teachers. It’s great to know our materials, but every year I need the wisdom to know how to instruct the group of students God has given me. I also need insight into my students to appreciate how God made them. Proverbs 2:3-11 shows us understanding, wisdom, and insight come from seeking God first.
We can pray: Please help our teachers seek understanding and insight from You. Please grant them wisdom and show them the way to go as they instruct our children this school year.
Strength
The more I teach, the more I lean into God for the strength I need to show up daily. This has been even more true since Covid in 2020. Yes, we’re all past the full pandemic, but the weariness left behind is still affecting us. Just this morning Psalm 28:8-9 was like balm to my heart.
We can pray: Lord, please strengthen our teachers for the school year before them. Please lead them like a shepherd and carry them in your loving arms.
Patience
Teachers need patience in spades. True, there are no dumb questions, but there are questions we have answered a hundred times already and put in bold font in the instructions. Assignments aside, often our students bring to school troubles from home. They may be as simple as a morning disappointment or as complicated as abuse or a death in the family.
We can pray: Paul’s words in Colossians 1:10-12 provide help. Thank you for calling our teachers to this good work! Please strengthen them through your power and give them the endurance and patience they need for today. Help them to rejoice in you.
Endurance
This one goes hand in hand with patience. As much as I love teaching, by the end of the semester, the hours get long and the grading stack gets high. There are many days that I wish I was the cobbler in the fairy tale, and elves would come and take care of the work while I sleep. No matter how much our teachers love their jobs, times like those call for great endurance.
We can pray: 2 Corinthians 6:4 is helpful prayer. Father, please help our teachers have great endurance to finish the race strong.
There will be hard days. However, we can have confidence that as we seek Jesus and focus our eyes on him, He will provide teachers the wisdom, strength, endurance, and patience they need to do well this school year.
