Before the School Year Begins

Dear Father,
  As this school year kicks off tomorrow morning, I would like to ask of you a few things. Lord, please make me adequate. Help me to know that I can never be all things to all people, but help me to be what I need to be. Help me to love when it is hard. Help me to be tough when it is necessary. Help me, God, to have a sense of my students, their needs, and what life is like for them. I pray that I can have the humility to say, "I don't know," or "I need some help with this." Lord, please let me have more good days than not. Give me a discerning heart when it comes to my students. Lord, make me adequate. They deserve that and so much more.
   And please, Father, be with my students (my big babies). I cannot know what is going on at home. I cannot know what they eat or don't eat. I cannot know everything about them. I pray that you will wrap up these children in your loving arms. Protect them and guide them. Give them the wisdom to make wise choices and good decisions. Give them a vision for the future so they can plan and act accordingly. Please help them to know that I am in their corner. I may be tough on them but it really truly is because I want the very best for them.
   Thank you, Father God, for the opportunity to have this job. Thank you for my colleagues who mean the world to me. Thank you for my administrators who are the most fabulous administrators anywhere. Thank you for my students - who challenge me but also encourage and support me. And thank you for entrusting me with their care.
 

                                                                                   Amen!