Prayer For Summer Vacation
Dear Father, we thank You for the summer holiday breaks. We appreciate teachers, who have worked so hard in preparing children and young adults into achieving their life aspirations and goals over the academic year. As we approach the summer holidays, Lord, we pray that You will give parents the guidance on how to look after their child/children during this period. Let children/young people honor their parents/guardians in the Lord, for this is right. Let this be a special time of bonding and reflection, as well as a time of appreciating one another, this we ask, Amen.
O Lord, you have brought us through the spring term to the summer break. This is our chance to recover from stressful course work, teaching, and engaging with students, faculty, and staff involved in the tasks of the semester or quarter. We have time now to rest our minds, hearts, and bodies from the rigors of academic life. It's mid-July and we can now spend more time with family and friends, attend to things we could not do during the spring term, relax, and read things that feed our souls and not only our minds. We come to you today in prayer to ask for your help in finding refreshment and renewal in the midst of summer.
For undergraduates, we pray that what they have learned during this last academic year may help them grow intellectually and that you would use it to transform them to be more like Jesus. May they be able to relax and recharge during the summer but also make time for important things, especially their relationship with you, even while they may have no schedule to follow. For any working summer jobs, please bless them in these roles. Help them in renewing and strengthening relationships with family and friends. Help them be brighter lights for you on campus in the fall.
For graduate students, we pray that you would grant them rest between regular courses. May your grace be upon both those working on graduate degrees that require only course work and upon those whose degrees include both course work and thesis writing. Please give strength and wisdom to those preparing for comprehensive exams. For those working through dissertations, give them the energy to climb what often seems like a very steep mountain. Help them to not grow weary or burn out even as the summer plods on. May they also know your strength as they prepare for teaching courses, performing research assistance to faculty, and other tasks and roles on campus. May all the graduate students, especially those with a relatively short summer break like those in med school, also find time to exhale, breath in your peace, and make time for rest. We pray for those who are married and those with children that you would please enable the students to spend more time connecting with these important people in their lives and that they would find joy in doing more than graduate work. May all these find you in their work and be able to continue their studies as unto you, Jesus.
For those who are faculty, may they also find rest during the summer regardless of whatever research, prepping for courses in the fall, and academic duties that they may have. Grant these faculty members wisdom and strength and help them likewise renew and deepen relationships with family and friends. May those who are seeking to become faculty experience your grace and find favor in the eyes of search committees as they apply for positions and prepare for possible interviews in the fall.
For those with recent PhDs, help them as they go through activities to build up their CVs such as participating in post-doc projects, writing articles for publications, preparing papers to read at conferences, networking, prepping to teach as adjuncts in the fall, and more, that they would have the energy for these projects after all the work required to earn a doctorate. May each of these steps bear fruit for their careers and for your kingdom.
For those who are staff who support the learning process, whether also students or not, who may not get a summer break at all, let them be strengthened in their hearts by you and have grace and wisdom in doing their work as unto you, O Lord.
For all those facing hostility or challenges to their devotion to you to be strengthened and become more equipped to speak winsomely of your truth when they return to campus in the fall.
May all these emerging scholars experience your grace and strength to persevere in their studies while keeping their eyes fixed upon Jesus. In his name we pray, Amen.
No more homework, no more tests.
No more getting up for school.
No more book reports or studying.
My summer vacation begins today!
I'm so happy and I'm so free.
I want to read and get up late.
I want to ride my bike and swim.
I want to play more with my friends.
Please bless my summer days, dear God.
Keep me safe and happy.
Jesus, thank you for Summer. Thank you for light and warmth. Thank you for the sun. Thank you for the gifts of nature and for the annual cycles and seasons. Today, give us that grace again, to see you as the Creator, the One who lifts us up to be with you forever, even now.
As the sun rises, Lord, Let your light shine on me. Destroy the darkness about me, Scatter the darkness before me, Disperse the darkness behind me, Dispel the darkness within me. Let your light shine on me. As the sun rises, Lord, Let your light shine on me. The warmth of your Presence, The brightness of your love, The radiance of your joy, The shining of your hope. Let your light shine on me. As the sun rises, Lord, Let your light shine on me. Your light to guide, Your light to lead, Your light to direct, Your light to brighten. Let your light shine on me.
Take time to claim your strength; they are gifts of God.
Take time to have fun; it's God's way of teaching you your strengths.
Take time to grow yourself; only you can grow you.
Take time to trust yourself; God trusts you.
Take time to be self-reliant; it is better than being dependent.
Take time to share with others; they will bless you, and you will bless them.
Take time to have hope, you are a child of God.
Let's put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, and pray that God will bless us and our families during the wonderful months of summer. May we all help make our home a place of relaxation, joy, love, peace and safety. May we be generous and considerate, not thinking only about ourselves, but helping others enjoy the blessings of summertime. Lord God, Creator of all things, guide our steps and strengthen our hearts, during these months of summer and vacation days. Grant us refreshment of mind and body. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Dear God,
Let us revel in summer.
Let us soak up the long days and warm sun.
May our feet walk on sandy beaches and our heads rest on thick grass under blue skies.
May we listen to and marvel at the singing of the birds and stop to watch blissful children at play
This summer, God, may our breathing slow and our hearts open. God help us to be present to all that is so that we might best see all that might be.
May we make our homes places of relaxation,
joy, love, peace and safety.
May we be generous and considerate,
not thinking only about ourselves,
but helping others enjoy the blessings of the summertime.
Lord God, Creator of all things,
guide our steps and strengthen our hearts
during these months of summer and vacation days.
Grant us refreshment of mind and body.
May we constantly strive to make a meaningful difference
in the lives of our loved ones and in the world around us
as we enjoy the warm days of summertime.