UPDATED: A Prayer For My Boys On Their First Day of School

Father in Heaven,

Thank you for always being faithful. There has never been a moment where You broke a promise, changed your mind or deviated from Your Word. Your faithfulness is one of the many reasons we come you in prayer for our needs. I look back on how you have protected and preserved each of my boys in the schools that I have attended, and I rejoice at your goodness.

You have always been a Good Father to my children. Despite my sins, missed opportunities and foolishness, You continue to shepherd them in more ways than I am capable.

As my boys return to school, I ask that You preserve their mind. I ask as they hear anything that challenges the sufficiency of Your Word, that You would protect them from being deceived. I ask that they would regularly ask themselves, “What does God think of this?”

I pray as they interact with boys and girls that their integrity would not falter. I pray that their testimony of who Jesus is would be infectious with their peers and teachers.

I pray that you would encourage and bless their teachers with wisdom, quick-thinking, fairness, and strength.

Father, please use this school year to be a period of growth in my boys. Help them progress towards a deeper knowledge of You. Challenge their faith. Grant them opportunities to be stretched.

Father, you can use anything as an instrument of accomplishing Your will. And as my boys travel back to schools they have grown to know, I pray You would use those institutions – in ways only You can achieve – to learn to love you more.

Please help Annie and I to be intentional in our conversations with them about their school day. Help us to ask the right questions about their day and their interactions. Help us to be good listeners as they express their victories and defeats.

Thank you. Father, for education. Thank you for giving all of us – parents, grandparents, our church, our schools – the responsibility of teaching.

In Jesus name, Amen.