Simon Cox Blog: God Hears Your Back-to-School Prayers

Friday, 1 September 2017

God Hears Your Back-to-School Prayers

A new school year brings more challenges and opportunities for Christians in education.

The sight of the school supplies section is enough to cue a combination of excitement and anxiety for kids, parents, and teachers counting down to the first day of school.

In addition to the practical preparation for another school year, we find ourselves back in the ongoing debates and pressure surrounding education in America.

Andrea Ramirez, executive director of the Faith and Education Coalition for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Coalition, sat down in August with author and speaker Bianca Olthoff to talk about our role as Christians in education—including how to handle back-to-school stress and divides between public, private, and homeschool parents.

In honor of this weekend’s Education Sunday, where churches across the country will pray for their students and their local schools, we are sharing some highlights from their conversation.

You can watch the whole thing from CT Women’s Facebook page.

On how can parents incorporate God into preparation:

Ramirez: In the few weeks before school, there is just this time of dedication. I remember my parents explaining to me, “God has called you to do incredible things, and right now, what he called you to do is do well in school. He wants to open up your mind, to prepare you, equip you for the assignments he has for you, so how you spend your time at school—it’s worship… it’s an opportunity to invite the Lord into how you spend that time.”

There was this discipleship that happened. Instead of having a negative view about taking a test or taking notes, I felt like, “Wow, the Lord blessed my note-taking!” What really clicked for me was during my college years, an English professor at Dallas Baptist University ...