Gracious God, we come to you at the beginning of this school year with our many feelings, expectations, fears and hopes. Help us to remember, however, we have the comforting
assurance from you: “I will always be with you.”

Loving God, for all of us this is a time of transition. It is transition
from the work and leisure of summer back to the classroom.
It is transition from time spent with family and friends to time spent with classmates and teachers.

Give us patience with ourselves as we transition as well as patience with one another.

Faithful God, this beginning is totally new for some among us. Some are starting  preschool or elementary school for the very first time. Others are starting in a new school such as middle school, high school, or college.

Turn the sadness of leaving families to openness to new friends and opportunities.

Turn the anxiety about academics to a quiet confidence in the way you have blessed us in the past.

Give us a new perspective to see persons, events, and academic work as an invitation to develop the many gifts you have given us to be used in service for others.

Creator God, some in our community are moving into their last year at a school or their last year before entering another phase of life. Bless them with your gifts of awe and wonder at the friends they have made, the way their minds and hearts have been changed, and the many opportunities that lie ahead. Give them the gift of discernment to make the right choices about the future.

Finally, God, give us wisdom to turn our minds and hearts to the thoughts and feelings that help us move our lives in the direction of your calling, the direction of meaningful and purposeful living.

Amen.