What is a good prayer for the first day of school?

Keep it short enough to actually pray in the car: ask God to go ahead of your child into the room, to send them one kind face, and to give them courage bigger than their nerves. Joshua 1:9 and Psalm 121:8 are the two verses most parents hold onto, one for the child's courage and one for the coming and going you will not be there to see.

What can I pray over my child before school?

Pray for courage, for one good friend, for a teacher who notices them, and for who they become in a room you cannot see. Praying it out loud over them at the door, even in one sentence, is enough.

Is there a Bible verse for back to school?

Joshua 1:9 (be strong and courageous, do not be afraid), Psalm 121:8 (the LORD will watch over your coming and going), and Isaiah 54:13 (all your children will be taught by the LORD) are the three most used for the start of a school year.

How do I stop worrying about my child at school?

Philippians 4:6-7 does not promise you will stop caring or that you will find out how the day went before pickup. It promises a peace that guards your heart while you wait without knowing. Many moms find it helps to pray at a set time each morning rather than carrying it loose all day.

A Prayer for the First Day of School

You laid the clothes out last night. You wrote the name on everything. And this morning you are going to walk a child up to a door, let go of a hand, and turn around and walk back to the car by yourself.

Somebody should hand you a prayer for that. Here it is, along with the ones for the rest of the day: the drop-off, the empty house at ten in the morning, the pickup line, and the night before it all starts again.

The night before

Father, tomorrow my child walks into a room I cannot see. Go ahead of them into it. Let them find one kind face. Quiet the questions in their head tonight so they can sleep, and quiet mine too. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.”
Psalms 121:8 (BSB)

Coming and going. That is the whole day, start to finish: the walk in, the walk out, and everything in between that you will not be there to see. This verse says God is watching both ends of it.

At drop-off, in the car, before you open the door

God, my hands are shaking a little and I do not want them to see it. Give my child courage that is bigger than their nerves. Let them walk in brave. And when they get scared partway through the morning, be right there in that moment. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.””
Joshua 1:9 (BSB)

This was said to a man about to walk into something enormous without the person who had always led him. It works just as well whispered over a child's head at a classroom door. Not "do not be scared." Something better: you are not going in alone.

For the child who is scared

Lord, my child is frightened and I cannot fix it for them. Send one friend. One teacher who notices. One moment today when they realize they are okay. Let them come home with something good to tell me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.”
Isaiah 54:13 (BSB)

For the drive home, when the house is suddenly quiet

Nobody warns you about ten in the morning. The house is clean, and it is far too quiet, and you keep listening for someone.

Father, the quiet is loud today. I keep checking the time. Take the worry I am carrying around this house and hold it for me until three o'clock. Remind me that You are with my child in every hour I am not. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Philippians 4:6 (BSB)

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7 (BSB)

Notice what this promises and what it does not. It does not promise you will find out how the day went before pickup. It promises a peace that guards you while you wait without knowing.

A prayer for their teacher

God, bless the person who will spend more waking hours with my child this year than I will. Give them patience on the long days and eyes that see the quiet kids. Thank You for people who choose to love other people's children. In Jesus' name, Amen.

For the pickup line

Lord, whatever they bring back to the car, help me listen more than I ask. If it was hard, let me be a soft place. If it was good, let me be genuinely glad. Thank You for getting us both through today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A prayer for the whole school year

Father, this year my child will learn things I will never hear about, and be shaped by people I will never meet. Guard who they become in that room. Give them a friend who is good for them. Let them be the kind one. And grow my trust as fast as they grow. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 (BSB)

Read this one gently. It is a proverb, which is wisdom about how life usually goes, not a contract God signed about your specific child. Parents who did everything right have watched a kid wander, and God did not love them less for it. Pray this verse with open hands, the way it was written.

A devotional for the mother whose child is somewhere she cannot reach

From Lily's motherhood season

God Hears Them There

One of the most tender lines in the Bible belongs to a single mother in a desert. Hagar and her son Ishmael had been sent away with some bread and a skin of water. When the water ran out, she put the boy under a bush and walked away so she would not have to watch him die. Then heaven spoke.

“Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.”
Genesis 21:17 (BSB)

God heard the boy crying right where he was. Not where he should have been. Not once he cleaned up or found his way back to a better place. Right there, under a desert bush, at the lowest point of his young life, God heard him.

Mothers of struggling kids need this verse like water. Because our fear whispers that our children are beyond reach, that they have drifted too far into the desert, that God only hears the prayers rising from tidy, faithful lives. Hagar's story says otherwise. The God she met in an earlier desert even got a name from her: the God who sees.

Your child may be in a desert right now. Depression, addiction, anger, a crowd you would never have chosen, or just a dry, distant season with no name. You cannot always go to them. Some deserts do not admit mothers. But God is not blocked by locked doors, closed hearts, or long distances. He hears their voice where they are.

So when you pray today, do not just pray for your child to get somewhere better. Pray with thanks that God is present in the exact spot they occupy right now, the bush, the desert, the mess. He was there before your prayer arrived. Nothing about your child's location, inside or out, has ever once made God lose track of them.

Pray: God who sees, thank you that no desert hides my child from you. You hear their voice exactly where they are, even in places I cannot go. Meet them there, provide what I cannot provide, and comfort this mother's heart that aches at a distance. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Reflect: Where is the desert place your child is in right now, and can you thank God that he is already present there?

One more thing, for the mom

If you cried in the car today, you are not being dramatic and you are not doing this wrong. Letting a child go a little further out is the actual work of raising one, and it costs something every single time. That ache is not weakness. It is love doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
3 John 1:4 (BSB)

A prayer for every hard morning

Lily is a daily devotional app for women, coming soon to iPhone. A short devotional for your exact season every morning, Bible answers any hour, and a place to watch God answer your prayers.

One email on launch day. No spam, ever.