Reading Time: 2 minutes

Want to pray for teachers and administrators, too? Grab that printable here.

I’ve probably written before about my dad sending my sisters and I off to the bus on so many mornings, in that flurry most of us with school-bound children know well. Lunches! Instrument! Mom, you didn’t put that in my lunch, did you? Permission slip! Did you finish that homework? Who’s picking me up from practice? Yes, you have to wear a coat; this is not optional.  He’d surround us in his big farmer-arms or put those sausage-like fingers on our shoulders. “Go MAD!” He’d say. My dad finds little shame in the corny, so that was Dad-code for “Go make a difference.”

Now I’m the one pecking heads while they run out the door, my fingers reaching (when not scrambling for the lunch and permission slips) for those shoulders that grow just a little more every year. I’m sending them on a mission, really.

As I thought about ways for us to pray for our kids, my mind strayed to why we educate our kids in the first place. It’s not just for a Christianized version of the American dream, or to keep our kids out of the poorhouse. This crystallized for me in Africa, when I realized that a lack of education meant a loss for everyone–whether through common sense, career competency, ability to reason, and realizing God’s image in them. This video from thebibleproject.org might illuminate the kind of “wisdom” we shoot for in education. It explains the Hebrew concept of hokhma (often translated as wisdom in Proverbs), which covers technical skill, artistic skill, even martial skill–and more traditional concepts, like prudence.

 

Pray for more.

That said, let’s pray for more than just the education of our kids’ minds. In a way, they’re being discipled at school. So let’s pray for their education to be God-glorifying and wholehearted.

PRINT IT HERE (great for posting in a cupboard, distributing to a parents’ group or prayer group, use in a church bulletin, etc.).

Equip others to pray, too, by sharing this!

TELL US: How do you pray for your kids while they’re in school?

Like this post? You might like