Prayers for Sandy Hook Elementary

Growing up and going to school each day, a trust is developed between parents, teachers and staff. Student and teacher, student and friend, teachers and paras, custodians and principals, secretaries and cafeteria staff...a family of safety and security. Each person a part of making it all work. Day in and day out like clock work, schedule is made over the summer to know where students and staff are at all times.. a schedule is made to keep it all moving. Imagine, the business of a beehive crammed into cinder block walls, composed of educators and learners. As soon as you think you are safe, that school is the safest place you can be, someone comes and knocks the hive out of the tree, and chaos ensues. 

Yesterday was my last day at Stanton Elementary in Norwich, CT. Jesse and I are preparing for our move to NC, where I will have a 4th grade classroom of my own. Twenty-four little bees to teach. We we're sitting on the couch and a friend of his called to check up on him and me, this friend knew I was a teacher in CT and wanted to make sure we were okay. Up until this point in the morning, we were unaware of what was happening, quickly changing the channel to find out for ourselves. 

Comprehending why or how someone would want to do this is unimaginable. I see the faces of the students being taken out of the school building, tears and fright fill their eyes. "Why would someone do this?" I ask my husband but he can not answer that question. No one really can. The shock of this hurts, but what hurts more is the lives lost and the pain of their families. 

A recent mall shooting, the movie theater shooting in Colorado, the stop that was put to a theater shooting in my own home town of Bolivar, Columbine so many years ago, Virginia Tech, and now an Elementary School. As time passes we sweep the memories under the rug, but what will take for us to learn from them. I think about the little lives that were lost, the moments those parents will never have. Weddings, graduations, soccer games, music concerts, birthdays, and holidays... days will pass and time will continue, but the lives lost will never be regained. 

I am mad, I am sad, I am shocked and discouraged. Why do people act this way? I'm not writing this to preach to you, only to get this off my heart. Believe in the power of prayer and use it. We do not understand why this happened, but we can pray for peace and understanding. Pray for those who lost loved ones, pray for those whose children came out alive. Pray for the staff and community, they still have to move forward and learn to live with this tragedy. Pray for the teachers and students across America and around the world. You never know when you take your last breath.