Lord, thank you for carving out this time for us to come before you with all that are and all that we have tonight. We believe that when two or more are gathered in Your name, you lend your ear to us. We trust You with all that is on our hearts and minds this evening.
We thank you for the opportunity to focus tonight on young families, parents, and teachers. You have given them the blessing of caring for children – at home, at church, at school and other workplaces, and through volunteering. Your all-knowing hand created each child in their care on purpose and with purpose, and we thank you for the part these caretakers get to have in the greatest love story of all time.
We do ask now for You to forgive us for our human strain of impatience, control, worry and anxiety we feel as we care for the children you’ve placed in our lives. We ask You to help us trust You more. Bless our hearts with great faith, daily steps of obedience, and lives full of evident trust in Your love.
Lord, tonight we ask that you give your help when teachers and parents are tired, give grace when they feel they’ve reached the limit, give peace when they feel overwhelmed. Empower them by your Spirit with enough energy to match even the most active child in their classroom or home. Give them laughter and fun in every day, and encouragement in the times when they’re battling weariness or defeat. Please bless them with wisdom, understanding, and a servant’s heart.
Lord, for teachers, equip them for every good work you have prepared ahead of time. We ask that your strength would fill them, and that you would enable them to do all that they do with a heart of compassion and love that comes straight from you. Give them ability and effectiveness as they teach, fill them with creativity and passion for this very important role that you have called them to. We pray that you lead them by your Spirit in every decision that needs to be made, through preparation and planning, helping them to see every child through your eyes. Help them choose activities for them that will delight and encourage the hearts and minds of the children in their care. Please fill these teachers with the love and light that only you can bring; and allow those gifts to flow freely through their lives in their classrooms and schools. Help them in their planning and leadership: give them organization in their classrooms, and your creativity in their teaching, so that every child can feel safe, supported, and can most effectively learn.
We pray for fresh hope today. For moms and dads, Lord, we ask for you to renew their strength for the tasks ahead of them each new day. Give them wisdom, patience, and courage. And when the crying, the endless chaos, the never-ending demand of caring for their children pushes them to the breaking point and they lose their patience, help them grant themselves grace. Lead them beside still and calm waters, give them good friends to walk beside them on their journey, and make way for someone to come along to provide respite and help.
Lord, be very near to the single mom and dad and bring them rest in you and assurance that You are enough and You make up the difference should there be something they could not give today. Increase their finances so they can afford their food, clothing, and shelter. In your unfailing love, deliver them from their anxieties, loneliness, troubles, and pain. Break every chain in their lives and bind and cancel out every lie and contract from the enemy. Bind, cancel and remove all people from their lives who are harmful for their walk with you.
Lord, we know that every gift and blessing come straight from your hand. We will not take it for granted. Remind us today of your great love and care over all those we prayer for and have lifted up tonight. We thank you Lord that you work powerfully on our behalf, and we commit our ways to you. May each purpose and plan you have for teachers, parents, and caretakers succeed, flourish, and prosper in every way. To you be the glory and the honor, forever and ever, Amen.
Prayer written by Kim Moser