Gracious God, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— Book of Common Prayers
(Photo: With Campbell Hall middle school principal Kasiopia Moore-Watts and the Rev. Norman Hull, chaplain, who invited me to offer a homily at chapel Monday afternoon)