I.

Oh Lord,
Where did the time go?
        Five years, only yesterday,
we brought her home,
        tiny and defenseless.

Now she wears a backpack
        bigger than she;
selected with care and stuffed
        with supplies chosen with the
        precision of a tiny scientist.

She walks away from me,
        so tall and proud of herself.
God, help me keep it together,
        until I reach the safety of my car.

Please Lord, protect my daughter;
        she is still so small, so innocent.
Now without me by her side,
        and me without her.

II.

Lord, we thought summer would never end!
        Thank you Lord! Thank you! Thank you Lord!
If we had heard, “I’m bored” one more time,
        the sixth commandment would be smashed.

September is a month of new beginnings,
        clean slates and fresh notebooks;
a chance for her to apply herself,
        put new strategies to work.

Lord, please help her to start strong,
        to get ahead, stay on task, and stay determined.

Keep her from Black Holes:
                                text messages,
                                tweets,
                                just hanging out,
                                long phone calls,
        that will swallow her alive.

Help her to work with integrity,
        keep her away from short-cuts:
web sites with fast answers,
        help that does not help.

III.

We remember when she
        was just five years old;
with the backpack that was
        sure to topple her backward.

Now she is enrolled in College:
                                Psychology,
                                Chemistry,
                                Political Theory,
                                Western Literature,
                                Freshman Seminar.

Her major has already changed five times:
                                Mass Communications,
                                Graphic Design,
                                Teacher Education,
                                back to Graphic Design,
                                now Pre-med.
Classes have not even started,
        God bless her advisor.

But now we’ve moved her into the dorm,
        and she is eager for us to move out.
So we drive away
        and dare not look back,
lest we turn into a pillar of salt
        drawn from our tears.

Lord, we come to you on behalf of
        all these students (and their parents).

We ask your blessing
        on their efforts to learn.
From writing their ABC’s
        and coloring outside the box,
to mastering Algebra and English –
        passing graduation exams.

We also ask your blessing
        on their life outside the classroom:
From the friends they make
        and the interests they pursue;
to the danger of foolhardy decisions
        that could impact the rest of their lives.

Oh Lord, grant your blessing upon
        what we can do to help our students;
and even more – on what we cannot do,
        what they must choose for themselves.

Amen

Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.