In a million years I didn’t anticipate beginning my blog into the teeth of a pandemic and quarantine. Suddenly many things that I’ve been working on seem irrelevant or simply less important. One thing doesn’t: intentional, corporate prayer.

On Fridays until the end of this school year, I’ll be publishing a prayer for the class of 2020. My own daughter is graduating from high school this spring. Since August, I’ve led a prayer via conference call for all the parents in her class. We pray for various concerns at the school and we pray for each senior by name every week. The prayers typically also include a Psalm or other praise passage from the Bible and a prayer from earlier Christian writings or the Book of Common Prayer.

Senior year typically has a rhythm to it: initial shock that we are here at the start of the last year, the flurry of college applications, sentimental events, final test opportunities, holidays, and then spring semester with so many “lasts,” college acceptances and decisions, prom, graduation and graduation parties.

Because that rhythm seems universal, I’ve decided to offer the prayers we pray on a weekly basis here in a slightly modified version. I’ve taken out names and extremely specific prayer requests but I’ve left the spirit of each prayer intact. Some weeks the prayers don’t change much, and that’s okay. Some weeks feel like there is too much to pray for!

And of all weeks, this week feels like a time to pray specifically for the kids we know who have had their capstone year of school snatched away. One prayer, of course, is that everything returns to normal quickly so that the events can go forward and we can return to that “typical” senior year rhythm. But right now, in the thick of things, it’s easy to turn pessimistic.

My hope is that you might find these useful, especially if you have a senior graduating. Include your children’s friends, or even the whole class, in the pause to pray for each child. There is value in praying for people week after week by name.

And if you aren’t a “prayer warrior,” well, you, my friend, should take heart (or be warned). I spent 50 years not praying. I even said so at Bible Study Fellowship. I had settled into a comfortable pattern of chatting with God when I thought about it, muttering a 3-seond prayer when requested on Facebook, saying the blessing before dinner. I was no prayer warrior. I wasn’t even a prayer private.

But before Paige’s senior year I remembered the moms’ circle at every football game. We joined hands on the track and prayed for blessings and safety and God-honoring actions on and off the field, naming every single player, cheerleader, manager, and coach every single week. It was a high point of the week for me.

I remembered my boys’ senior years, and how hard some of those weeks had been. And when I needed a little motivation , there was Kanye West (KANYE FOR GOD”S SAKE) saying his life was saved by “people in my family that were praying for me.”

And then God whispered, “You should do that for Paige’s class.” Oh, no, not me, Lord! Let me give you the reasons:

• I don’t pray well
• I never finish what I start
• I don’t pray well
• There are LOTS of better people to do this
• I don’t pray well

And so I negotiated with God, “I agree that this is, in fact, an interesting idea. So I’ll just sit back and let someone else do it and I’ll DEFINITELY participate.”

Negotiations with God usually go well.

I researched conference calling sites (we love freeconferencecall.com) and sent an email to the parents of the senior class. Then I set up a GroupMe with text reminders on the day of the prayer. On Friday, August 9, at 7:40 in the morning, we had our first call. We’ve gathered via conference call and recording every Friday that school has been in session since. We pray for every single senior every single week.

Please join us! Gather a group of like-minded friends, tailor your own specific requests, add your children’s names, and pray. God will always honor time spent with friends and with Him. He has promised us that.

I’m going to close with the prayer we prayed last week over our kids, in case you would like to get started early. I’ll be back on Friday with our prayer for the week.

Father,

There are weeks we come before you with rejoicing and it’s just so easy. And there are weeks when it’s hard. This is one of those harder weeks. But still we praise you:

I lift my eyes toward the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD will keep you from all evil.
He will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Father, today we pray for more than our seniors. We pray for protection from illness for our whole community. Teach us to lift our eyes to look for You. It’s so easy to keep our eyes down—at the ground, at our feet, at our phones. But in fact lifting our eyes is good—we will see You.

Our kids have so much uncertainty right now: layers of confusing, unprecedented changes layered over the run-of-the-mill senior struggles. Thank You for the gift of perspective, Father! This week is a huge reminder that while we make plans, it’s only God’s plans that stand. To the extent possible, Father, teach us to remember our place in Your creation. We are stewards but we are not You. Ease our kids’ anxiety over all these situations, and use these situations to help us all to learn to trust You even more.

Each and every family in our community has a struggle, and we can’t know them all, which is why we pray for every senior by name every week. But some struggles we do know, and we can bring them before You. [You can put your own specific petitions here.]

We ask for particular grace and wisdom for every single person in leadership, from the administration at our school to Governor Kemp to President Trump, and for all those who are responsible for government decisions. We ask for stamina and clarity of mind and for health for the nurses, doctors and al those involved in caring for sick people. We ask for grace and wisdom for all the teachers who are within one day moving to teaching online. And just hold all the students in Your hands. Give all of us adults the tools we need to reassure them that while we aren’t in control, we know that You are.

And we pray for each member of the class of 2020. [Insert your kids’ names here.]

Finally, LORD, I ask You for peace and for unity. This crazy virus can be a tool to draw people together in common purpose, or it can be a knife to divide us with suspicion and cynicism and pride. A cord of three strands—LORD, let us be a cord of many, many strands, helping each other, shouldering burdens, accepting limitations for a time, and above all just loving each other. There are no better words to close with than those of St. Francis:

LORD, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are
Born to eternal life.

Amen