Dear Teacher

Dear Teacher,

As I drove along Highway 22 today, I passed cluster after cluster of traumatized trees left from the disaster known as Hurricane Michael.

Many trees, though growing, were spindly and bent. Other trees were growing in unnatural ways with stubby branches and shapes that were anything but symmetrical. A few trees stood straight and tall, but it was evident that the trees of the forest had been damaged, and almost five years after the storm, they were still suffering from the devastating event.

I thought about those trees, and I thought about you.

You are about to welcome a new forest of students into your classroom, and many of the trees who arrive will carry the effects of trauma with them.

Some have been abused physically, some verbally.

Some have suffered from illnesses or great loss.

Others have struggled to learn what is required of them, and they face this new year with great trepidation.

You may even be carrying some scars yourself.

The students will arrive though, clustered into your care, ready or not.

The growth of your forest of students will require everything you have, so, today, I pray for you.

I pray you will have great compassion that grows your heart until it is two sizes too big (It is already one size too big). Compassion that accepts the children as they are but that sees what they can become. Compassion that allows you to walk humbly with your students as you learn together.

I pray that you will have great wisdom. In the myriad of decisions that you will be forced to make each day, you need the wisdom of Solomon to not only know what is right but what is best.

I pray that God will grant you stamina and good health, for the journey you face is not for the weak. You will be called to labor and give and give some more.

I pray that you will have grace. Grace that looks past the brokenness of those you serve and grace that allows you to accept that you, while doing your best, will not be able to fix everything.

I pray that you will find joy in the task and in each child you face. I know that sometimes you will need to reach deep for this because some days and some students are joy suckers, but I pray that God helps you see the joy in each day. I pray the joy of the Lord will be your strength.

I pray that you will find a sense of accomplishment in the weariness you experience at the end of the day, that you will be able to remember the good rather than the troublesome.

I pray that God will give you grit. Grit that will keep you going when the work seems overwhelming. Grit that continues to see the potential in every student even when they cannot see it themselves. Grit that continues to expect each child’s best. Grit that keeps you showing up, physically and emotionally, every day.

I pray that each child that enters your room will feel safe and nurtured and challenged, and I pray that each day you will feel safe and nurtured and challenged.

We often romanticize the job of teachers, but it is hard work. It is good work when done well, but that does not make it easy.

I am excited for you as you begin this year. There is nothing like a fresh, new classroom and that first glimpse of your students!

May God grant you compassion, wisdom, stamina and good health, grace, joy, a sense of accomplishment, and grit.

You will need them all. God has them all for you.

Philippians 1:⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (NLT)

Nehemiah 8:10b  for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

I Peter 5: ¹⁰ But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.