In the next few days, thousands of students will get up in the morning, get dressed, grab their backpacks, say goodbye to someone at home, and head off to school.
Some will climb onto a school bus. Some will be dropped off by a parent or grandparent. Some of the older ones will drive themselves.
And eventually, each one of them will **walk through those doors.**
For some, those doors will be familiar. They know where they’re going. They know their teachers and friends, and they’re ready to get back.
For others, everything will be new—a new school, new teachers, new classrooms, new expectations, new faces, and perhaps a whole lot of questions about what is waiting on the other side of those doors.
And it isn’t only students walking through them.
Teachers, administrators, counselors, paraeducators, secretaries, cafeteria workers, custodians, coaches, bus drivers, and many others will walk through those doors too—each carrying their own responsibilities, concerns, and hopes for the year ahead.
And that brings me to something I believe is very important:
Before they walk through those doors, we can pray for them.
We can’t walk into every classroom with them.
We can’t sit beside them in the cafeteria.
We can’t make every decision for them.
We can’t protect them from every disappointment or difficult situation.
But we can pray.
Some Things Haven’t Changed
Do you remember your first day of school?
Some of us may have to reach back quite a few years!
Maybe you remember new shoes, a new outfit, a lunchbox, or freshly sharpened pencils. Maybe you remember standing at the bus stop wondering what the day would be like.
And perhaps you wondered:
Will I like my teacher?
Can I do the work?
Who will I sit with?
Will I have friends?
Will I fit in?
Children still ask many of those same questions.
The world surrounding them has changed tremendously, but the heart of a young person hasn’t changed nearly as much as we might think.
They still want to belong. They want to be accepted. They want friends. They wonder whether they’re good enough.
That gives us some very specific things to pray about.
Psalm 139:14 reminds us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Our young people need to know that before they ever walk through the doors of a school.
Their value isn’t determined by the group that accepts them. It isn’t determined by their clothes, athletic ability, grades, number of friends, or what someone says about them on social media.
They were created by God.
So we can pray: “Lord, give our students good friends and a place to belong. But don’t let their desire to fit in cause them to forget who You created them to be.”
Lord, Give Them a Friend—and Help Them Be One
One of the greatest concerns young people have is simply, “Will I have a friend?”
Will someone sit with me? Will I find a group where I belong? Will I be alone?
Certainly we should pray, “Lord, give our young people good friends.”
But perhaps we should add something:
“Lord, help them BE a good friend.”
While we’re praying that our child or grandchild won’t have to sit alone at lunch, another parent or grandparent may be praying that exact same prayer for another child.
What if God intends our young person to be part of the answer?
“Lord, give them good friends—and help them notice the student who doesn’t have one.”
Pray for More Than an Easy Year
There will also be disappointments.
A team they don’t make. A part they don’t get. An invitation they don’t receive. A test that doesn’t go well. A friendship that changes.
We can’t protect our children from every disappointment.
So perhaps our prayer shouldn’t simply be, “Lord, don’t let them be disappointed.”
Instead:
“Lord, when disappointment comes, help them discover that You are still good, You are still with them, and their value has not changed.”
We aren’t simply praying that our students will have an easy school year.
We’re praying that God will walk with them through whatever this school year brings.
Guard Their Hearts and Minds
Of course, protection is one of our greatest concerns.
We pray for physical safety—in buses and cars, classrooms and hallways, playgrounds and athletic fields.
But our children need more than physical protection.
They need protection for their minds and hearts. They need wisdom and discernment. They need protection from bullying, destructive influences, and choices that can have lifelong consequences.
Our young people have many voices speaking into their lives—friends, teachers, social media, entertainment, influencers, advertising, and culture.
Among all those voices, our prayer should be: “Lord, help them recognize Your voice and Your truth.”
Jesus prayed in John 17:17: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
May our students become so grounded in God’s truth that they can recognize what isn’t true, even when it sounds convincing.
Remember the Child Who Feels Unseen
Hundreds of children may walk through school doors on any given morning.
Some will be laughing with friends. Some will be excited. Some will be complaining about having to go back to school.
But others will walk through those doors carrying things no child should have to carry.
One may have heard Mom and Dad arguing before leaving home. Another may wonder whether there will be enough food at home that night. One may be grieving. Another afraid. Another struggling emotionally.
And someone will walk into a cafeteria already knowing that no one will be waiting for them at a table.
A child can be surrounded by hundreds of people and still feel completely alone.
But there isn’t a single child in any classroom whom God does not see.
God sees the child everyone else overlooks.
So perhaps one of our prayers this year should simply be: “Lord, see the child who feels unseen today—and send someone to sit beside them.”
And perhaps the person He sends will be one of our own young people.
Don’t Only Protect Them—Use Them
Jesus said in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world.”
When we pray for Christian students, much of our prayer is understandably about protection.
“Lord, protect them from this. Keep them away from that.”
Those are important prayers.
But let’s add another: “Lord, don’t only protect our children in their schools. USE our children in their schools.”
Being a light doesn’t necessarily mean standing in the cafeteria preaching a sermon.
It may mean refusing to laugh when someone is ridiculed.
Sitting beside the person everyone else ignores.
Refusing to participate in gossip.
Showing respect when others don’t.
Helping a struggling student.
Standing beside someone who is being mistreated.
Saying, “I’ll pray for you,” when a friend is hurting—and then actually praying.
Let’s not simply pray that our students will survive their school year.
Let’s pray that God will use them during their school year.
Don’t Only Protect Them—Use Them
Jesus said in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world.”
When we pray for Christian students, much of our prayer is understandably about protection.
“Lord, protect them from this. Keep them away from that.”
Those are important prayers.
But let’s add another: “Lord, don’t only protect our children in their schools. USE our children in their schools.”
Being a light doesn’t necessarily mean standing in the cafeteria preaching a sermon.
It may mean refusing to laugh when someone is ridiculed.
Sitting beside the person everyone else ignores.
Refusing to participate in gossip.
Showing respect when others don’t.
Helping a struggling student.
Standing beside someone who is being mistreated.
Saying, “I’ll pray for you,” when a friend is hurting—and then actually praying.
Let’s not simply pray that our students will survive their school year.
Let’s pray that God will use them during their school year.
And Don’t Forget the Adults Walking Through Those Doors
Teachers and school employees need our prayers too.
They carry responsibilities most of us never see. Teachers aren’t simply teaching reading, mathematics, science, and history. They’re working with different learning abilities, behavioral challenges, emotional needs, administrative requirements, concerned parents, and sometimes children who desperately need an adult to care.
And teachers have lives outside the classroom too.
That teacher may arrive at school carrying grief, financial concerns, family problems, exhaustion, or discouragement.
So let’s pray: “Lord, give our teachers wisdom when they don’t know what to do. Give them patience when theirs is running thin. Give them compassion for the difficult child. Give them strength when they’re weary. Encourage them when they wonder whether they’re making a difference.”
And let’s remember the administrators, school board members, counselors, paraeducators, secretaries, cafeteria workers, custodians, coaches, and bus drivers.
Each has an opportunity to affect a child’s life.
Will You Join Me in Covered in Prayer?
I don’t want us to pray for our schools only as a new school year begins.
Colossians 4:2 says: “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”
Notice that word: Continue.
Not just today.
Not just during the first week of school.
Not just when we hear about a crisis.
Continue in prayer.
To help us pray faithfully, I’ve prepared a little prayer guide called Covered in Prayer: Praying for Our Schools, Students and Staff.
Inside you’ll find twelve areas of prayer to guide you as you pray for students, teachers, school leaders, families, and everyone who serves in our schools. There’s also a place to write the names of the people and schools God places especially on your heart.
I’d love for you to join me.
Begin with twelve days—one prayer focus each day. Read the Scripture, consider the prayer focus, and then allow it to guide your own prayer.
And make your prayers personal.
Choose one student and one teacher or school employee to especially carry in prayer throughout this school year.
Ask the Lord:
“Is there someone You would have me especially pray for this year?”
Then, as you use Covered in Prayer, bring those people before the Lord by name.
And when you reach Day 12, don’t feel that you’re finished.
Begin again.
Keep praying.
View or Print Covered in Prayer
When you reach the end of those twelve days, don’t feel that you’re finished.
Begin again.
Because we’re not only praying for the first day.
We’re praying for the ordinary days that follow.
For the good days—and the difficult ones.
For the student who needs a friend.
For the teacher who needs encouragement.
For the young person facing a difficult decision.
For the child who needs someone to notice them.
For the moment when a Christian student has an opportunity to quietly shine the light of Christ.
Long after the first-day pictures have been taken, the new pencils have been sharpened, and the backpacks no longer look new, may our schools still be covered in prayer.
Before they walk through those doors, we can pray for them.
And once they’re on the other side of those doors—
we can still stand with them in prayer.
A Prayer for Our Schools
Father, we bring our schools before You.
We cannot go everywhere our children go. We cannot protect them from every hurt, make every decision for them, or guarantee that they will always fit in, always have a friend, or never experience disappointment.
But You can go where we cannot go.
So go before them, Lord.
Walk those hallways with them. Guard their hearts and minds. Surround them with good friends. Give them courage when they feel afraid. Remind the lonely child that he or she is seen.
Give our Christian students courage to shine for You.
Give our teachers and school workers wisdom, patience, compassion, and strength.
Protect those who enter our schools, and throughout this school year, remind us to faithfully pray for those who walk those hallways every day.
In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.