The Brokenhearted

We live in a broken sinful world – a world that walks into and lives in our schools and classrooms daily. Mistakes happen. Harmful choices are made. We work every day with parents, students and staff who are broken. Sometimes we are the ones who are broken. Sometimes this brokenness we deal with is obvious and sometimes it is hidden. As a teacher for over thirty years, LaBelle Robinson witnessed much brokenness. This is just a sample or small portion of what she witnessed that she shared with us.

•   A co-worker was in tears. Her sister just tried to commit suicide when she found out her husband was having an affair.
•   A co-worker had just gone through a bad divorce and the same year a drunk driver killed her daughter in an accident.
•   A co-worker who was desperate to have a child just had another miscarriage.
•   A co-worker’s parents both died from Covid-19 in the same month during the pandemic.
•   A kindergarten teacher was given twenty-eight students. Sixteen of the students had one or more parents who were incarcerated and her kindergarten became a “kinderbattle.”
•   A fatherless student whose mother was recently placed in jail, and who had been frequently sick for the past month, just doubled over at his desk with severe stomach cramps.
•   A co-worker got home from her son’s varsity baseball game where he pitched for the first time. That night her mentally ill husband murdered her, her two sons, two dogs and then shot himself.
•   A student and his family were homeless and living out of their car in a rest stop near the school.
•   More than one third of the teachers at one school chose not to return to their school the following year because of unhealthy administrative conditions.
•   A drug survey indicated seventy percent of the high school students reported using alcohol and forty percent using marijuana.

Parents, students and staff members with whom we work with every day are in desperate need of prayer, spiritual protection, deliverance and support. At times we may have these same needs. Many are suffering and often God is the only one who can help them. We must go to Him in prayer.

Jesus is looking every educator in the eye and is asking the same question He asked His disciples long ago in a garden when He needed help, “Could you not keep watch with me for an hour and pray?”

Will your answer be, “Yes, Lord,” or will it be, “I’m sorry. I’m busy. I have a meeting and papers to grade”?

PRAYER: Jesus, show us where and when to keep watch in prayer for those suffering and in need in education. Don’t let us put you off. Keep us awake praying when we want to get our own work done or go home.

EXERCISE: Ask Jesus what time(s) He wants you to set aside each day in your classroom or office to come to Him alone in prayer. Ask Him if He wants you to agree in prayer with co-workers on a regular basis. If yes, ask Him who to invite to join you and where and when to do this.