Join us as we pray for our nation's schools, students, and teachers. These prayers for school focus on various needs, including safety, purpose, focus, and more!
Simple Prayers for School
Prayer for a New School Year: Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of another school year and for keeping us safe. Bless our school, the teachers, staff, and students. Guide us in Your wisdom as we learn and grow. Protect us, lead us, and grant us Your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer for Wisdom and Guidance: Lord, grant wisdom and patience to the teachers and staff. Help them to share their knowledge in kind and effective ways. Provide students with the curiosity and determination to learn and thrive. Keep our school a safe and nurturing environment for all. Amen.
Prayer for Protection: Almighty God, please protect all who come through our school doors. Guard our children from harm, watch over their journeys to and from school, and keep our classrooms safe. Bless our efforts to create a community of care and respect. Amen.
Prayer for Unity and Peace: Father in Heaven, help our school to be a place of unity and peace. Teach us to accept one another and learn from our diverse experiences and backgrounds. Help us to work together in harmony and respect for the betterment of our community. Amen.
Prayer for Parents: Lord, we lift the parents and guardians of our students. Provide them with the strength, wisdom, and compassion they need to support their children. Help them to find balance in their lives and to feel connected to our school community. Amen.
Download your own personal copy of these uplifting prayers HERE. Print a copy and keep it close to you throughout the day to remind yourself to cover those you love in prayer.
Pray against physical harm.
“Always pray and never give up.” (Luke 18:1)
Make a daily habit out of praying for their physical protection from cuts, bruises, fist-fights, bike crashes, abduction, abuse, and addiction. The reality of child trafficking should make every parent overly-cautious. The fact that cough meds have to be purchased with an ID is a red flag to parents to be aware. The rampant problem with bullying in this country proves abuse is just as prevalent outside the home.
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A Prayer for Those Affected by the Covenant School Shooting in Nashville
Pray that school fulfills its purpose - giving your child an education.
“Learn them.” (Deut. 5:1)
The most powerful way to pray is by quoting God’s Word, and I believe it’s important to memorize Scripture for that purpose and beyond. In a transcendent way, this verse also illuminates the importance God places on learning. He created a world to discover and knowledge to be attained. Classrooms can be packed and distracting, making it hard for students to focus and teachers to teach. Mandated testing doesn’t always align with a child’s actual capacity of knowledge.
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Pray for your child’s influences.
He is always listening.” (Psalm 34:15b)
God ears pick up every conversation our kids have. Pray to Him in recognition of what He already knows. When learning is swallowed up by the social scene, academics aren’t the only thing at risk. Our children’s friends’ will eventually have more influence than we do. Tragically, much of what we are praying for here today comes down to friendships and social skills.
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Pray with us:
Father, Praise You for the opportunity to be mothers and fathers. You craft each life with importance. Every one equally loved by You, our faithful and loving Father. We know that You have a purpose for each life You draft, and praise You that we get to be a part of that purpose.
Thank You for every day they hop into the car or off the school bus safely returned to us. The joys of parenthood are as abundant as the worries. We worry about our kids, God. School should be a safe place for them to learn, grow, and foster the friendships You designed us to crave. But the world is broken, and school isn’t safe. There are lock-down drills that send teachers to dark corners to huddle with their students. Bless the teachers that fight back their own fear to risk their lives for our children.
Schools have been attacked. Gunshots have filled hallways and forever changed the way we feel when we say goodbye to our kids each morning. Be with us as we struggle to maintain composure on the days the depth of reality is too much for us to swallow.
God, there is a reason You tell us to have faith like that of a child. They are bursting with curiosity and full of love. Protect their innocence and preserve the spark in their eyes from the darkness of the world. Let them be little lights to their parents and teachers. Allow them to grow and have a fair opportunity to learn.
Father, we confess our worry and our fear to You today. You tell us not to worry, but it is so hard not to cry when we think of what other parents have had to suffer on account of the tragedy we prepare to face everyday. Comfort their hearts in a special way.
Bless our children and keep them safe from physical harm. Protect them from abuse, abduction, child trafficking, and addiction. Guard their hearts from the devil’s schemes, and protect their minds from things that are not appropriate for their eyes to see and their ears to hear. Bless them with hearts of compassion for their fellow students and teachers.
May they be kind on the playground and quiet in the hallways. Protect our children from gossip and bullying. May they know and hear Your voice louder than all the others.
Godly friends are important, and we pray today that You bless our children with those friends. May their friendships be innocent and light, and may the be filled with kindness, understanding, and compassionate consideration for one another.
God, it’s hard to let go of our kids, and send them out into a world that is so unstable and so volatile. But You are bigger than all of our worries. You are bigger than our worst fears. Send Your Holy Spirit to quicken in our hearts as we seek You in Your Word and pray to You for comfort. Remind us that our children are Your children, and that You love them infinitely more than we do. You love us, and them, so much that You sent Your Son Jesus to die on a cross. In the most cruel way to die, the Savior of the World hung there for us. For all of us. My we always cling to the cross for our hope, and light the path for our children to, as well.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
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A Prayer for Teachers
Dear God,
Grant our teachers an abundance of Your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love our loved ones, and may we make sure to show them love and respect in return. Give them grace as they help students who aren’t thriving, courage to say what needs to be said, tools and knowledge on how and when to speak love, and strength when they feel weak. When they feel unseen, remind them that no moment goes unnoticed. They are shaping the future in one million small - yet incredibly important - ways every day. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift of learning they share with our children. Bless them, Lord, and may they see even just a glimpse of how their faithfulness will forever impact generations to come.
Amen.
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A Teacher's Prayer
Help me to be a fine teacher, to keep peace in the classroom, peace between my students and myself, to be kind and gentle to each and every one of my students. Help me to be merciful to my students, to balance mercy and discipline in the right measure for each student, to give genuine praise as much as possible, to give constructive criticism in a manner that is palatable to my students. Help me to remain conscientious enough to keep my lessons always interesting, to recognize what motivates each of my students, to accept my students' limitations and not hold it against them. Help me not to judge my students too harshly, to be fair to all, to be a good role model, but most of all Lord help me to show your love to all of my students.
Amen.
(written by Olga de Juana)
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5 More Things to Pray for Your Local School (from Proverbs 1:1-7)
- Thank God for learning. Thank God that he has provided everything we need “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight” in his word (v 1-2). While human minds enjoy unravelling the puzzle of how the world around us works, God has not left us guessing on the question of why—he’s told us clearly through Scripture. That’s a big reason for thanksgiving!
- Get future-proofed. Pray that students would learn “prudent behaviour” (v 3). Thank God for the way he uses education as an instrument of his common grace in restraining the effects of sin on society. Pray that this school would teach children “prudent behaviour”, and equip them to make choices that do good, not harm, to others as they grow up.
- Love fairness. Pray that students would learn to do “what is right and just and fair” in God’s eyes (v 3). Sometimes it seems that our culture’s definition of right and wrong is drifting further and further from the Bible’s definition. But pray that children in this school would be taught that what God thinks is right is indeed right; that what God says is just is indeed just; and that what God says is fair is indeed fair.
- Learn discretion. Ask God to teach “discretion to the young” (v 4). Kids can be very cruel with their words. So pray that these children would learn to control their tongues and speak words that are kind and patient, not offensive or mean.
- Fear God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (v 7). Pray that students and teachers would come to fear God—and realise that this is far more important than all the knowledge the world offers. Pray for Christian teachers you know, and anyone else who has an opportunity to witness to the gospel—ask that they too would fear God, not humans, and so speak faithfully and courageously of Jesus.
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Editor's note: Content for this article has been adapted from the original articles "A Parent's Prayer for Safety at School" by Megs, A Prayer for Teachers by Kaitlyn Bouchillon, and 5 Things to Pray for Your Local School by Rachel Jones.
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Publication date: March 26, 2018
Rachel Dawson is the design editor for Crosswalk.com.
