Prayer in Public Schools

            No prayer in public schools!  I think of it when I am in the urban public school where I teach and someone asks me to pray.  I think of it when I send up a silent prayer in a moment of need!  I pray that God would help the people I work with, the parents, students and me.  I want to have love for others at all times and the wisdom to know what to do in the many difficult situations I encounter daily: I ask for this in prayer.  I think of it when I see a fellow teacher bow her head before eating her lunch.   No prayer in public schools?

            I remember when I was a child and prayer was allowed in public schools.   I remember when no one would think of eating a bite of lunch without our lunchtime prayer.  Even a snack was not to be consumed without prayer.   (Of course, many families had the same practices at home.)

            In December 2012 (so you know I am not reminiscing back too far), I went into a fourth grade class where the students were having a small party before the commencement of the Christmas holiday.  I helped the teacher arrange the food for the children. 

            It was nothing like the parties you would see in a suburban school with all kinds of colorful goodies arrayed on a bulging smorgasbord table. Instead, all of the desks were arranged in a close circle and the teacher had a small place mat on each desk.  There was a small cup with about a fourth of a cup of a fruit smoothie, a plate with about a half cup of popcorn, one Hershey Kiss,and a small wrapped candy cane on the place mat.

            There was such an air of excitement as the teacher invited the 20 students to take a seat and then begin eating.  One fourth grade girl said, “ No!”  She told the students that they could not eat before thanking the Lord Jesus for their food. Spontaneously, they all locked hands and raised their hands above their shoulders and began to pray in unison: “Lord Jesus, we thank you for this food! God is great, God is good and so we thank him for this food…”  They continued a very long version of this old prayer. At the end, they shouted: “Amen!!!” They all seemed to know this prayer and if any did not, they said it anyway as though they did!  Needless to say the other teacher and I were speechless.  I muttered something like that was very nice as I wiped the tears.

            Society has done a lot to squelch prayer and its practice in the past 50 years.  On many levels, it has succeeded.  However, as long as there is need, gratitude and a human longing for God there will be prayer, not just in foxholes and trenches, but in homes, churches, stores, factories, parks, wilderness areas and, yes, even public schools!