A teacher sits at his/her desk at the end of the day. It is one of those days that didn’t go according to plan. Nothing seems to go right. We often write these days off as a loss, but God, through His grace and mercy, can redeem them. There is no such thing as a lost day if we take time to see it through the lens of thankfulness. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, reflect on what went right. It may be a small celebration or a triumphant victory. Start a gratitude journal to record these nuggets from the Lord; it will serve as an encouragement to you and a praise to God. Never leave school defeated; instead, be inspired by how God is working in and through you. Before you know it, you’ll see your students’ growth exceeding your expectations—and theirs. That’s how God redeems the time!

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Prayercast: Administrators To Make Wise Decisions Concerning Next Year’s Plans/Staffing, Wisdom About What To Keep And What To Cut In Finalizing Next Year’s Budgets

Welcome to Monday Night Prayer with Teachers Who Pray. We’re going to begin this evening with a prayer of adoration.

Prayer Of Adoration

Dear Heavenly Father, your way is perfect. Your word is flawless. You shield all who take refuge in you. For who is God besides you, Lord? Who is the Rock except our God? We adore you, Lord. Lord, there’s no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

You have kept your promises to your servants with your mouth, you have promised, and with your hand, you have fulfilled it. We adore you, Lord. There is no one like you, Lord, and there is no God but you. We adore you, Lord. Lord, you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hands and no one can withstand you.

If calamity comes upon us we will stand in your presence and will cry out to you in our distress and you will hear us and save us. We adore you, Lord. Bless be your glorious day and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You may the heavens even the highest heavens and all their starry hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to every dig and the multitudes of heaven worship you. We adore you, Lord.

Lord God, you perform wonders that cannot be fathomed. Miracles that cannot be counted. We adore you, Lord. You, Lord, are a shield around us, our glory, the one who lifts our heads high. We adore you, Lord. Lord, you are a light and our salvation. Whom shall we fear? You are a stronghold of our life. Of whom shall we be afraid? For in a day of trouble, you will keep us safe in your dwelling, who will hide us in the shelter of your sacred tent and set us high upon a rock. We adore you, Lord, amen.

Prayer Of Confession

Prayer of Confession. Father God, as we also hope, our own children and students will come to us in all honesty and truth to confess their wrongdoings. It is also that you, gracious, merciful Father, want us to come to you and confess our sins one by one. We do this now silently, telling you, O Father, the ways we have wronged you on this day. Now, O Lord, with clean hearts, we lay aside all malice and all guile, all hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind, and like newborn babies, we crave spiritual milk so that by it we may grow up in our salvation.

Lord God, we have tasted your goodness and your blessing, and we praise and we thank you for helping us reverse course and change our ways. Help us, mighty God, go in a new direction as we continue to daily repent and live with the hope of eternity. We remember now your promise, Lord Jesus, that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. Amen.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

Prayer of Thanksgiving. Psalm 104 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name.” This shows that we come to his presence. We first enter with thanksgiving. Father God, today we thank you for being who you are, and who you are is our provider waymaker like father, and protector.

You are the one who gives us his living word. There should be a lamp into our feet and light into our path. You are the one who knows the plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope in the future. Father, if we thank you for keeping us during this school year, you have strengthened us, loved us, and cared for us. You have held us and protected us.

Father, we thank you right now for sending depression, anxiety, fear, worry, distress, and anything that is not a fruit from you back to the pits of hell. We thank you that you gave us liberty and the ability to call things as they should be and not as they are and to speak what we want to see. We thank you for giving us authority. We thank you for showing us how to stand strong and new Lord and providing us with the armor of God.

We thank you for our friends, families, students, jobs, and so much more. We thank you for connecting us with people who can push us more towards you and that we can do the same. We thank you for providing ways to make disciples of all nations and show others your light. You are good, mighty, and wonderful. Everything you do is intentional and full of love and full of light. We give your name all of the glory, honor, and praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer Of Supplication

Prayer of Supplication. Heavenly Father, thank you for waking us up this morning and allowing us to have activities of our minds and bodies. Thank you for your grace and mercy on this day. Lord forgive us our transgressions seen and unseen as we forgive those who have transgressed against us. Olympians 4-2:3-4, “Don’t push your way in the front. Don’t sweet talk your way to the top.

Put aside yourself and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.” Lord, we gather this evening in prayer on behalf of school administrators. We come humbly seeking your guidance and wisdom for the school administrators who hold the responsibility of making decisions about next year’s plans and staffing.

Grant them clarity of vision and discernment as they navigate through the complexities of budgeting and resource allocations. Lord, anoint school administrators with your infinite wisdom to make choices that align with the highest good for all involved, to nurture school’s growth and ensure sustainability. Our hope is in Jesus, the great shepherd of schools, the way the truth, and the life.

We invite the all-knowingness of God to lead school administrators through whatever they are facing in this world. God, you understand their end-of-the-year stress. Lord, we declare Psalms 23 for school administrators. Your extraordinary offer to lead and guide them through every season. Specifically, God, you promise to lead school administrators through the valley of the shadow of death, that dark place where we doubt everything good and fear every possible negative outcome.

Father God grants school administrators the insight to discern what staff, supplies, and budget line items need to be retained and what staff, supplies, and budget line items may need to be relinquished in order to achieve the school’s academic social, and emotional success. Health school administrators to recognize the unique talents and contributions of every individual and make decisions that honor and respect each staff’s member dignity and worth.

Guide them in identifying the right individuals to join the team and the areas where adjustments may be necessary for the school to reach levels of excellence. Lord, we place our trust in your divine sophistication, knowing that you will direct school administrators on how to be savvy with the funds they are given to obtain financial stability and operational efficiency for their schools.

Help school administrators to see beyond the immediate challenges and consider the long-term impact their decisions will have on the well-being of schools. May they prioritize you wisely keeping in mind those who are impacted by their decisions. God, we ask that you help school administrators discern the paths that will lead to growth, innovation, and fulfillment of the school’s mission.

Lord, we ask that you grant school administrators the courage to make tough choices with compassion and fairness, recognizing the human aspect behind every position and program affected by their determining actions. Grant school administrators clarity of the educational vision, provide them with the appropriate words and language to use with all of the school stakeholders, and the foresight to anticipate the varying consequences of their actions.

Lord, we ask that you grant school administrators the courage to make tough choices with compassion and fairness. Click To Tweet

Proverbs 29:2, when good people run things, everyone is glad, but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans. Lord, feel school administrators with your Holy Spirit as they navigate through uncertainty and complexity. May their decisions be grounded in integrity, guided by the knowledge required to execute the assignments of their positions. Let school administrators be inspired by compassion and empathy for the greater good of all.

Lord, we ask that you touch the hearts of school administrators so their decisions are infused with fairness toward all. Proverbs 11-14. “Without good direction, people lose their way. The more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.” Father God gives school administrators the courage to embrace change and the humility to seek input, counsel, and thought from others. May they listen with open hearts and minds, and recognize that true wisdom often comes from collaboration and collective insight.

Proverbs 29:18. “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.” Lord, our Father God, we entrust school administrators, concluding thoughts, and options for staffing and budgeting for next year into your hands, knowing that you are the ultimate source of wisdom and abundance. May their decisions be guided by you and bring about prosperity and flourishing for the school and all who are touched by his work. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen. Amen and amen.

Special Requests

At this time, Chandra and Deborah, if you have any special requests, you want to take yourself off mute and share them with us, we’d be happy to pray over them, or you can just put them in the chat. We’re so glad you’re on this evening. It took me a minute.

No, that’s okay.

Okay. Yeah. Good evening. It took me a minute because I’m also in the middle, I believe or not, even though it was a thought of trying to get something on the table here for my son. I’m in the process, I’m just about to start the process to make a decision about an offer that I just received today to be in Jacksonville, teaching middle school math. I really need guidance and wisdom in order to see the things that I need to see and to really just look at the situation with spiritual wisdom.

I’ll pray.

Thank you, Denise.

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come to you on behalf of Chandra. Lord, she is seeking you and asking for your direction for this opportunity that has come her way to go and teach in Jackson at this middle school and to teach math. Lord, we ask that all of the ins and outs regarding this decision Lord that you will speak to Chandra’s heart and speak to her mind to confirm that this is what you want her to do or not want her to do. Lord let her hear your voice clearly and know exactly what it is that you would have ever to do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Thank you.

Amen.

Deborah, do you have any requests? Is there anything we can pray for you about?

Just that I’ll just continue with my light shine wherever I’m at. Thank you.

Thank you for coming on and touching and agreeing with us.

Yes. Our pleasure. No worries.

Michelle A put in the chat that we will continue to pray for testing. Would anyone like to pray for the end-of-the-year testing at the schools?

I will.

Thank you, Deborah.

Heavenly Father, once again, we come before you say thank you. You said in everything give thanks for the will of God and Christ is concerning us. Lord, you said in all thy ways, acknowledge you and you would direct our path. We lift up just not her school beginning testing, but all those throughout the state’s God who’s preparing testing. We know it’s very time-consuming.

We know it’s very stressful but God, you have not given us a spirit of fear or anxiety. We pray, God, you just be in the atmosphere, God, even as a test coordinator, God, let everything be done decently in order. Every teacher who’s administering the test, God, we pray, Father, God, let them administer it, God, with confidence.

Every child from the youngest to the oldest, God, we need to be right now, God, that everything that they have been taught, God, that you bring back to their remembrance. God, let every child know they can do all things through Christ that strengthens them. We decree right now, God, that the test scores will be increased this year. We decree that every child will be successful.

We thank you, God, because you got this brought through another year, and it’s just a time to see the children’s growth. We pray now, God, that you just be in the midst, God, in the name of Jesus, God. God, we give you the praise, the honor, and advance, God. We thank you for the victory we decree right now, God. God, that every child, God, will be successful.

We decree right now, God, even as the children are testing God. God, that you just let them do their best, God. Let them not be fearful. Let them not be any testing you regulations, God. God let your will be done in our life. We thank you for peace and calm down every nervous spirit. In Jesus’ name, we claim it done, amen and amen.

Amen. Thank you, Deborah. I’m going to pray just for a couple of things I have on my heart after today at school. A student who tried to commit suicide and a student who’s moving who just told me, I love when they tell you the day that it’s their last day and they’re moving and you’ve had them their whole career and then they’re gone. I’m going to pray for that family.

Then there was a little girl in Chicago, a nine-year-old shot this weekend, senseless again. I want to just lift those requests up in prayer. Father God, sometimes we do exactly what you talk about in Romans 8, Lord. We just groan because we’re so overwhelmed, Lord, by grief and by the things of this world, Lord. Tonight we just lay at the foot of the cross, Lord, this small girl who was shot, Lord.

Lord, we know that you give us the Holy Spirit. He is our guide. He is our comforter. He is our counselor. We are never alone because we carry Him inside of us. Click To Tweet

We don’t know why you allowed this, Lord. We don’t know. We just know there is evil in this world, Lord. As Paul reminds us, Lord, this life is temporary compared to eternity with you, Lord. That’s what we keep forefront in our mind, Lord. As we’re just groaning to you, Lord, about these things that are happening all over our world, Lord. Bring comfort to this family, Lord.

Bring comfort to these parents, Lord, who are asking why. Lord, and if they don’t know you, we ask that you surround them with other Christians, Lord, who trust in you, who can offer their comfort, Lord. Lord, we also lift up my student, Miguel, who tried to take his life, Lord. Thank you for sparing him, Lord. Thank you for stepping in and keeping him from following through with that, Lord.

Thank you that you provided a safe place for him to go, Lord, and receive help, and thank you that he’s coming home to his family today Lord. Continue to bless him, Lord. Continue to give him a sound mind Lord and a sound body Lord. Continue to use his creativity Lord and his intelligence to do amazing things for your kingdom Lord.

Lord, I also lift up my student, Angel, who is moving to another school, Lord, and who is very sad today as I was too Lord. I ask your blessing upon this family. I ask that he meet new friends, Lord, and as he moves out of the city, Lord, experience new safe ways to just be a child, Lord. Help him not to walk in fear. Lord, I just pray that you surround him with your presence, Lord.

Lord, we know that you give us the holy spirit. He is our guide. He is our comforter, Lord. He is our counselor, Lord. We are never alone because we carry him inside of us, Lord. He dwells inside of us, Lord. He is our helper. When we feel like we don’t know what to pray or how to pray, he intercedes for us. Thank you for that gift, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for hearing our prayer and a senior your mighty name. Jesus, Son of the Living God, we pray. Amen.