Remember to pray for teachers as they head back to schools and colleges or universities and begin to work in a very different world.  Many of the new guidelines and protocols are merely ideas that haven’t actually been tried in the real world. So pray that they would find strength, not just at the beginning of a day, but at the end as well, when they turn around and go home to a busy house only to find themselves waking up the next day to do it all again.  Pray for peace as they trust our elected officials to protect and make decisions prioritizing safety over profits.  We pray for patience as they deal with children and teenagers who are already stressed.  We pray for joy to find them in the most unlikely of places.  

Remember to pray for Children and students who are supposed to learn in environments that are now altered for safety not education.  Pray that they would learn compassion and kindness.  Pray that this year at school would stretch them in ways that shape beautiful character.  Pray that this disruption would be redeemed in ways both surprising and lasting.

Pray for Parents wondering each night if their child has been in contact with someone who has been sick.  Pray for the parents wondering if their child has a cold, allergies or one of a list of 25 symptoms.  Pray for those who have someone immune compromised in their life causing them to question and second guess every choice they make.  We pray for God’s peace over all.  We pray for patience as we all continue to live slower lives, caring for neighbour and strangers by the simplest act of wearing a mask and washing our hands.  We pray for the marriages and relationships that act as sounding boards and targets in this trying time.

And in it all, pray that we come to discover that God is already in all of it.  We don’t have to pray that he goes with our children to school or our partners to work—this is God’s world.  He is in it all.  Our prayer is instead….that we just see him in all the chaos and disruption.  And that, it is enough.  For truly if we can find God in these crazy times, then it stands to reason, that there would be no where we couldn’t find his presence.

Amen.