A Morning Prayer for My Children Before School

Father, in a little while I will send them out the door, backpacks heavy and hair still half done, and my heart goes with them down that road. They are leaving my sight but never Your care.

I confess I worry more than I pray for them. I rehearse every danger, every unkind classmate, every hard moment they might face, and forget that You love them even more fiercely than I do.

So I lift each of them to You by name this morning. Guard their bodies on the way and their hearts once they arrive. Surround them with kindness, give them courage, and let them feel loved even when I am not near.

You said that You set Your children like arrows in a quiver, and that You hem us in behind and before. Hem them in today, in the classroom and the hallway and the moments I will never see.

Help them learn, help them be kind, and bring them home to me safe. Let them carry Your presence into their day. I give You my children, and I trust them to Your keeping. Amen.