Chaplain’s Corner: Our Teachers Need Us

By Rev. Dr. Rodrigo Cruz

One of the things that my wife Kelly and I try to do every night when putting our five kids to bed is not only teach them to pray, but teach them to pray for one another. So, we ask them to pray by name for each other. Sometimes they pray for each other’s dreams and highlights of the day, and sometimes they just barely say each other’s name because they have nothing nice to say. Nevertheless, they pray for each other.

A couple of weeks ago our son Ben (7 years old) was having a hard day, and as he was getting ready to go to bed, right before we prayed, he said, “Well, at least there are a bunch of us, so we all get a lot of prayers.”

There is so much truth and power in that statement, and as hard as life can get sometimes, there is something very comforting when you know there are a lot of people praying for you by name.

During the past couple of weeks, we have been getting phone calls from the teachers of our kids as they are getting ready to enter a new school year. If you have kids in the school system, most likely you have been getting those phone calls, too.

As parents we often wonder what we can do for those teachers – maybe get them extra school supplies, maybe send them a gift card, maybe send them an appreciation note – and while all those things are important and needed, we can also start by praying for them. So, I want to encourage you to pray for the teachers of your kids, and if you don’t know what to pray, here are a couple of ideas: • Pray for the teachers and their families. Teaching is a very absorbing job (physically, mentally, and emotionally), and it often takes a toll on their marriages, families, and relationships. Pray for them and their support systems. • Pray for the teachers and their life balance. They are often juggling so many county requirements, school assignments, parent expectations, and other pressures that can be overwhelming. Pray for their wellbeing. • Pray for the teachers and their relationships with their students.

Teachers will spend at least eight hours a day for the next 180 days of the year with our kids. Pray that all relationships (especially the hard ones) can become lifegiving for both.

At the end of the day, we do not know what this new school year will bring, and there will be so many things that we cannot control; but what a comfort there could be for the teachers to know that “…at least there are a bunch of us, so they all get a lot of prayers.”

Rodrigo Cruz is the Lead Pastor of The Nett Church. More information at www.thenettchurch.com.