Article August 31, 2009 Issue

LIFT OFF THOSE LABELS

BY SUSAN MACK

There is something so wonderfully hopeful about a new school year—rightfully brimming with happy expectation as school supplies are readied, lunch boxes packed, classrooms prepared, dorm rooms decorated. School is about expanding horizons, pulling back limitations, and lifting labels. The very word school hints at infinite spiritual frontiers to explore, and to support effectively in prayer.

Unfortunately, as the media all too often report, schools can be the arena for harmful pigeonholing and intimidation. And the recent suicide of a high school boy in Illinois, who felt like an outsider bullied and taunted, is a dramatic reminder of the need for prayer that stretches out to heal the morale of individuals and society as a whole. back to school—taking off the labels

All-embracing prayer for institutions of learning, and for the students and teachers who attend them, is vital. Effectual prayer lifts off the labels of learning deficiencies, attention deficits, social stratifications, teacher burn-out, and whatever else would harm, limit, or impede the natural growth and harmony of each child and institution. Such prayer reveals true identity as spiritual individuality, infinite and joy-filled.

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