I am so glad I took the time to pray over and bless my kids on the first day of school. Rather, I am so glad God prompted me to pray, with the power of the Holy Spirit, on their first day. As I was praying I said words I have prayed many times. Yet that morning I was visualizing what it meant. Throughout the day that visual stuck with me, and I was encouraged to say a few quick arrow prayers. Because, as it turns out, the kids really needed them.

While we were in prayer, these are some of the words I was prompted to pray:

“Lord, place a hedge of protection around them in this day, for the entire school year, and always. Surround them with your presence, guiding their footsteps, protecting their actions, making the path clear that you have called them to.”

As I was saying the words over them and conversing with God about them, I could visualize a sort of protective bubble around them. Not to exclude others or keep them isolated from the world, rather to protect them. To give them an extra bumper of space, a bit of margin to think through their own actions and the actions of others. To hopefully not face the incredibly difficult things that many teenagers in high schools face these days.

I said quick prayers through the day. In our dinner conversation God revealed why they so desperately needed those prayers. Turns out that on the bus that morning, not ten minutes after I released them to the world, the student sitting next to my son had marijuana. He was asking the other kids around him if they wanted to go off campus during the morning assembly. My son was face to face with the world, very little margin.

Of course our conversation calmly continued with, “How did you know?” “How did that make you feel?” “DID HE ASK YOU TO JOIN?!” “What would you have said?” “What are you going to do if there is a next time?”.

I’m sad my son had to face that. AND I’m so grateful I was prompted to pray for protection. I’m also incredibly blessed to have kids that want to share their thoughts and days with me. It urges me to continue to lift them up to the one who sustains, provides, and ultimately protects these blessings He’s given me.

Prayed over, blessed, and released to change the world.