A Prayer for Our Educators: Today, some of the last details are being checked off the long list of things to do in classrooms around our community. Today, bulletin boards are having a few final touches added. Today, the basic tools of education are being rounded up and put in place. O Creator God, you have created and gifted certain people to assist in the education of our children. As Jesus was often referred to as a Rabbi, a teacher, you desire for your creation to ask the challenging questions, to expand perspective and to be WOWed by new information and newly emerging science. May those who have been given both the gifts and the responsibilities of educating, continue to seek your creative Spirit in the day to day task of teaching. Where there are budgetary challenges and families with limited resources, let generosity break forth from those who can assist. Help us to help you create little miracles that help to supply the necessary tools that are too often missing in our classrooms. We pray for school boards and state representatives to place education and its funding as the single highest priority. We will never be the people you created us to be unless children and their education are more than a political slogan. In the weeks ahead, we pray that each teacher hear words of affirmation and are able to feel at peace in their calling. May this be so, especially as they face the many challenges that children bring into the classroom. May your Spirit provide patience and wisdom when the human spirit is worn out, and may the not so easily seen rewards of teaching be named and celebrated each day by those who teach. We pray this in the name of your gift, the Rabbi and preacher of love, Jesus. Amen.
