Pray For Teachers

With the school year now underway, you have no doubt established a routine of getting your kids up in the morning, dropping them off to school and picking them up in the afternoon. Some of you may even include a time of prayer, either before or after school, for your children's safety and success in their studies. But have you ever prayed for those men and women who are responsible for your children's welfare during the day?

Children spend more of their waking moments with their teachers than they do with their parents. Teachers can and do exert a considerable amount of influence over your children.  I am sure you can recall some favorite teacher who inspired you and helped to make you the man or woman you are today. For some children, the only guidance or show of love they will ever receive is from a teacher. And this is why we need to pray for them.

As someone whose first career was teaching, I know how challenging this job can be. It's not easy to try to mold the lives of thirty-odd children with varying needs, abilities and backgrounds. Yet, this is what teachers do everyday. In recent times, teaching has become more demanding. Teachers' skills, patience and even their safety are being tested all the time. We need to pray that God will give our teachers the grace, wisdom and strength necessary to keep on giving their best even when things get tough.

Let us pray that teachers will not become "weary in well doing" (Galatians 6: 9) but will work "Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (Ephesians 6: 6) and that God will "Make them perfect in every good work to do his will, working in them that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever" (Hebrews 13: 21). 

If you wish to encourage a special teacher in a tangible way, here are some ways you can do it:

a. Write a note to the teacher(s) letting them know you appreciate their hard work and that you are praying for them. 

b. Give a gift - a mug filled with chocolate, a small basket of apples, nicely wrapped, or a daily planner decorated and signed by you and your child. 

For more ideas, see the link below.  

If you enjoyed this blog post, why not share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest by clicking the relevant button below? Until next time, may God keep on holding you in the palm of His hands.

Can You Wait On God?

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run , and not be weary ; and they shall walk , and not faint  - Isaiah 40 : 31.

Do you find yourself impatient at times for God to answer your prayers? How anxious will you get when your loved one is ill and you send for someone you know can help, and that person doesn't show up? Worse yet, your loved one dies and the person you sent for still hasn't come. But then you tell yourself it doesn't matter now anyway. He's already dead. Such was the position of Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died. Jesus was their good friend. He often stayed at their house whenever He passed through Bethany. He partook of their hospitality, and He seemed to love them. He'd healed many others, surely He could heal their brother. But it wasn't until Lazarus had been dead four days that Jesus showed up.

Can you relate? Your situation may not be as bad as having a loved one die, but you may be praying and expecting God to answer your prayers and He doesn't seem to be listening. Has He forgotten you? No. In the same way He didn't forget His friends in Bethany, He has not forgotten you. He knows what He is doing. 

  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55: 8 - 9.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:- Ecclesiastes 3 : 1

But when the fulness of the time was come , God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law - Galatians 4 : 4 

God does things according to His timing, not ours, and His timing is always best.  Just wait on Him.