As teachers and children mourn the end of summer and parents anguish over the impending adjustments to their weekly schedules, it can only mean one thing: It’s back-to-school time again.  I vividly remember the rush of excitement when the last bell rang, declaring the freedom of summer had begun.  I also remember, in what seemed like just days later, the surge of dread when the alarm clock blared that the first day of school had arrived again.

As a kid of the ’60s, I walked to school, was both the bully and the bullied, and was afraid of every adult that worked at my schools, except for our elementary school custodian, Maurice. Maurice could place both hands on top of his head and make his biceps dance like a pair of beating hearts.

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When I say afraid, I don’t mean in a cowering sense. I mean it in the most profound sense of respect and reverence, with a healthy dose of fear and fret.

I don’t remember teachers sharing much about their personal lives, and we didn’t want to know much about their personal lives.  They were there to teach, and we were there to learn. I played with my friends; I listened to my teachers.

Today, the ecosystem of education has drastically changed.

There is a growing confusion about who our children belong to. Family values and parental authority are under attack.  What might be the goal of this decades-long assault to usurp control of your child’s development systematically?

Give me four years to teach the children, and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
~ Vladimir Lenin 

Some government officials think they have been endowed with some make-believe power over your children; otherwise, why would they treat parents with such disdain?

The speech writers for the Democratic National Convention got plenty of mileage out of this line: “And we will never ban books in our children’s schools!”  While the herds whistle like walruses and bleat like sheep, I review the “textbooks” that are being banned right now in multiple states.  They are nothing short of explicit cartoon porn.

I remember when I accidentally found a copy of The Joy of Sex in Junior High School.  I have time-tested confidence to say this:  The first explicit images a child sees will remain prominently influential into their adult life.

I reviewed two of the sexually explicit textbooks distributed to school libraries for grades 4 through 6.  It is nothing short of a XXX rating and can hardly be classified as education.  Indoctrination is even too kind a word.  It is traumatizing, destructive, and shameful for adults to promote and provide vivid depictions of sexual acts to innocent children.  And it’s not only Health curricula that are replete with shocking sexuality, but sex and gender are included in other courses as well.

The more I learn, the more I realize that the brains of America’s students are being defiled.

Society is lying to our children.

The epicenter of government education is no longer reading, writing, and arithmetic but instead race, sex, and self.

The prominent progressive philosophies in our nation today tell children lies about themselves.

To those for whom abortion is nothing more than a contraceptive convenience, the answer is a diabolically revolting, “You are no one.  You are not even alive.”

To those for whom child pornography is aesthetically satisfying, the answer is a demonically saturated, “You are nothing more than a stimulating array of pixels.”

To those for whom children are glamorously trafficked for the consumption of the rich and famous, the answer is a sacrificially satanic, “You are here for my pleasure.”

To those for whom innocent children remind you of the pain and trauma of your broken childhood, the answer is a selfishly retributive, “You will suffer because I suffered.”

To those for whom heteronormative sexuality is anathema, the answer is a subtly hissing, “You are not who you think you are.”

To those for whom Judeo-Christian principles and the Western-prescribed traditional family require disruption and deconstruction, the answer is a hopelessly nihilistic, “You do not belong.”

These lies are destroying American children and we have the mental health data to prove it.

Students in our nation need our prayer!

Using the Bible as a guide, let’s pray for the fullness and power of the presence of Christ in schools and campuses across the nation.

Jesus cared for and valued young people.

Thank God for all the Christian youth and ask Him to strengthen them. (Ez 34:11; Acts 15:32; Col 2:2)

Pray for students to know their value and worth in Christ. (Ps 139; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Jn 3:1-2)

Pray for young people to be anchored in God’s Word. (Eph 6:17; Ps 119:105)

Students are living in times that are hostile to faith and biblical values.

For students to pursue righteousness. (Ps 111:10; Rom 6:18; 2 Cor 3:17)

Pray for hope. (Jer 29:11; Rom 15:13; 1 Pet 1:3)

Pray for God to set students free from spiritual captivity. (2 Tim 2:25-26; 2 Cor 4:4-6; Rom 10:9)

Scripture challenges and expects much of young believers.

Pray that Christian students would be an example of Christ to those around them. (1 Tim 4:12;  2 Tim 2:2)

Pray for students to be led by the Holy Spirit’s leading in witnessing opportunities. (Acts 4:29; Col 4:3)

Pray for revival on campuses, student-led renewal, and personal evangelism. (Is 44:3; Joel 2:28-29)

I am grateful for the education professionals who perform their jobs with integrity, sound mind, and excellence.  I am particularly thankful to those who see public education as a mission field and release the salt, light, and seeds of the Kingdom every day.  I wish you were paid more!  But your most excellent payment is coming when you will watch your students join the generation that ushers in the greatest move of God our country has ever seen.

Father, this year, may back to school be for the Kingdom.

Keith Guinta blogs at www.winepatch.org. He is a husband and father, and he has been a worship leader and church planter.