Pray With Me
With three young children, school day mornings can be busy and often stressful in my house. After waking the kids and coaxing them to the table, I play the role of the short order cook, serving breakfast while simultaneously packing lunches (because I just cannot make myself do this the night before!). Then it’s uniforms, brushing teeth, double-knotting shoes, and trying to get out the door while inevitably a hair bow is missing, or brothers are wrestling, or the dog chewed up another teddy bear and the day is starting off with tears and, more often than I’d like to admit, a fair amount of yelling.
One morning, after a particularly rotten getting ready for school experience, I buckled everyone into the car for our short drive to school and spontaneously began praying aloud. I asked God to forgive me (and the kiddos) for the rough start to our day and prayed for blessings on each of us throughout the day. I gave each child a chance to add their own intentions as well. I felt instantly better, and I knew my kids were getting out of the car in the drop off line with a sense of peace and feeling God’s love as they entered school.
I often encourage teachers to try spontaneous verbal prayer with or in front of their students, especially when faced with a challenging behavior situation. Students can sense when their teacher is getting frustrated. Imagine having a teacher pause, take a deep breath, and say something like, “Dear God, Give me patience today, as I am struggling to react positively to these students. Please help them to practice greater self-control and kindness. Amen.” Perhaps a small prayer like this will be enough to act as a warning of sorts to students and will curb behavior issues for the moment. Even if not, it will likely help the teacher feel calmer and handle subsequent discipline problems in a more productive way. More importantly, the teacher is sending a message to students about how to deal with frustration and difficulty by turning to God in prayer. Maybe some of the students will internalize that message and follow the teacher’s example by praying during their own times of struggle. This is a life lesson and coping skill that should be modeled for students as often as possible.
Since that day when I prayed aloud about our awful morning, we have continued to pray in the car on the way to school. I hear the click-click-click of seat belts and ask who wants to pray first. My children take turns praying for their family and friends and whatever worries are on their minds that day. It has become a routine that we all look forward to and I hope it is instilling in them the habit of turning to God to start their days.