A Prayer for the School Year

Well, mamas, here we go again.

Another school year with so many unknowns. Last year was a year unlike any other in known educational history. Our kids and families endured challenges we couldn’t even dream up twenty or thirty years ago when we were in school.

This past year, many of us sent our kids to school at the kitchen table or in their bedrooms. Computer screens replaced the traditional classroom, and for those who were in a classroom, smiling teachers’ faces were hidden behind masks.

The struggle was real, and the consequences of a year spent in remote learning are still being revealed. But the bright side is that kids are resilient. We don’t give them enough credit for their ability to adapt and bounce back. Prior to the pandemic, we parented our children with an attitude of “give them every advantage.” Perhaps clearing the path so our children don’t experience any obstacles isn’t doing them any favors. Perhaps our parents and grandparents weren’t so far off when they tried to remind us that adversity builds character. Maybe Grandpa and Grandma didn’t actually have to trudge to school in the snow, uphill, both ways, but they knew something about facing adversity that we didn’t really know much about until this past year.

Remember the movie Annie staring Carol Burnett and Albert Finney? (If you haven’t seen it in a while, do yourself a favor and plan a family movie night.) At the end of the movie, after Annie overcomes adversity and avoids nearly being kidnapped, she and Daddy Warbucks sing the duet “I Don’t Need Anything But You.” There is a line in that song that has been playing on a loop in my head as I prepare to face this school year.

Yesterday was plain awful.

You can say that again.

Yesterday was plain awful, but that’s not now, that’s then.

Last year was awful, no doubt about it. But it’s time to turn our attention to what is in front of us. Will there be challenges and curve balls? To be sure. The question we need to ask now is not Did we do it right last year? but rather, How are we going to move forward this year? There are a lot of scary things out in the big, wide world that our children face. Even before the pandemic, we all took risks when we handed them their lunch boxes and pushed them out the door. Now we send them out the door wondering what new chaos the world will hold. Some of it is within our control and some is without. Sending ourselves and our kids into the new school year requires both a leap of faith and trust in our own ability to handle adversity.

As we face the new school year, I would like to offer you a prayer:

Creator, Mother, Father, Mystery, God. may we move forward responsibly, but not fearfully.

May we show patience, love, and grace to our families and children, our teachers and administrators, and to ourselves.

May we trust you and your plan for our family while also trusting our God-given intuition and mama instincts.

Teach us how to balance the pandemic new normal with the old normal life we long for.

May we remember that every child in the classroom is your child and just as precious to you as our own children.

Help us remember that the other parents are trying their best, too.

Help us remember that you are for us and with us in the challenges and victories of the school year.

May we see your presence in the changing of the seasons and the curve of our children’s cheeks.

Help us remember that your love is bigger than our fears, bigger than the pandemic, yet gentle enough to hold our children’s hands as they walk into school.

You are with us, you are in us, you surround us, you love us. Thank you. Amen.

Stephanie Clinton is a writer and blogger but more importantly, a wife and mother to two little boys. In her free time (if there is any) she can be found wiping snotty noses and volunteering in her community and school. Learn more about Stephanie along with her passion to encourage women and lighten their load at www.hugskissesandsnot.com.