A teacher's thanksgiving prayer

While some people are all mushy and warm and fuzzy and all "save the world" and "let's enjoy our time off" and "is it black friday yet?" today, I remain a snarky and sleep-deprived schoolteacher. With that in mind, let us pray,

Dear God,

Thank you for everything. There, that sums it up neatly. You are awesome and wonderful and loving and kind every day and I hope that I remember to tell you because...well...I work with teenagers and I'm going to need you...every hour! So, thanks for everything.

Now, this is the big request of the day. Ready? Okay. I would really appreciate it if you would help people to stop referring to these four days as a break or a vacation. Don't these people know that we saved all of our grading from the past three days for this weekend? Like, duh! Don't they know that we needed all of our energy for the kids who NEVER miss a day of school no matter how hard we pray (so, yeah, we will need to discuss that later too)? Don't they know that in order to be the change we want to see, we have to plan lessons, grade papers, write curriculum maps, read the literature, collect, report, and analyze the data plus wash the dishes and cook half of the meal...if not the entire meal and plan activities for our own children who are actually off and have no homework over the..."break"? Lord, today, I'm not praying about raising test scores or increasing retention and graduation rates. Today, I just pray that as you shut the lion's mouth for Daniel that you would shut a few mouths for me too. (You know I am a direct descendant of Peter and I'm prone to cutting people and if I have to spend half of my time "off" on the altar asking for forgiveness, I won't get my schoolwork done. Can you help a sister out? Pleeeeeease?) Okay, I think that's all for now. I know, it's a lot to ask and I know you're probably teaching me grace or patience or something useful but you told me to make my requests known...so this is my request for today. Thank you so much!

Love,
Carla

PS - Please grant me an extra helping of grace as I continue to refer to this day as the celebration of that time that the colonizing imperialists stole from the people of color who were indigenous to this land long before it was "discovered" and who warmed themselves against the ravages of fire water with small-poxed blankets. Okay, thanks again!