So many memories rush in as I think back to when I was young and the new school year was about to start. When I was very, very young I was very fearful of leaving home to go to school. It was as if I was afraid that my home would disapear while I was away at school. Things at home were often so shaky that I was always fearful, and in starting school I seemed to be afraid of everything — the new kids, the new teacher, the new things to learn. It took me a long time to learn how to read and I was only able to do so as a wonderful teacher stayed after school with me and helped me build my confidence so that I could finally relax a little and make sense of the letters and the sounds they made.
Once I mastered reading, things were different because books became my world — they took me out of my problems and into new lands through my imagination and the images the stories evoked. And I began to love school with all my passion; I began to dread the summers when there would be no school and I dreaded the emptiness I would feel without the structure of the classroom. I looked eagerly to school beginning again at the end of summer.
I was thinking, too, of the prayers I would say for my daughter when she was young and starting her new school year. I would pray that she would be happy in school, that she would love to learn, that her teachers would treat her well — even with love — and be nurturing to her, and that she would not be hurt by the other children. I wanted her to feel safe at school and treasured as a student. God was good to her.
So, I ask you if you are a parent, what are your prayers for your own child for the new school year? What are your hopes and dreams for your baby? If you’re a teacher, what are your prayers for yourself and for the people whom you will teach? And, if you are a student, what are your prayers and hopes for yourself in the months to come.
Please share with us.
