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Jennifer Garner shares heartfelt message ahead of school start: 'God bless teachers'

Garner is a mom of three, and her mother was an English teacher — so she knows how valuable teachers are.
/ Source: TODAY

As a mom of three, Jennifer Garner has at the front of her mind the one subject most every parent has been worrying about for months: sending her kids back to school.

But a post she shared on Instagram on Labor Day isn't about worry; it's a prayer of hope and blessings:

"Thank you for the gifts and lessons of this summer," the actor captioned a bare-faced selfie. "God bless teachers, faculty and administrators as they guide us through this big question mark of a school year. Bless the parents trying to make it all work. And the children who are learning to make the best of things in ways we couldn’t have predicted. Help us remember we hold each other in our hands. And please God, preserve our collective sense of humor. Amen."

Although many schools around the country have already opened (and, in some cases shut) their doors to incoming classes, Labor Day has traditionally marked the divide between summer's end and school's start. Garner — whose daughters Violet and Seraphina are 14 and 11, and whose son, Samuel, is 8 — is likely anxious about how they'll handle the new school realities.

Not only that, the Golden Globe winner, 48, knows what it's like to have a parent as an educator. Her mom was an English teacher, and that gene has clearly rubbed off. In August, Garner dressed up for a history lesson on fan etiquette in Colonial times and shared a video of her lesson, which went viral.

Also last month, she spoke on TODAY about she feels parents can help teachers this school year.

"The more that parents can band together and help the teacher and take turns doing fun things like that and just surprising their own children and the class, by taking over and really preparing and doing something fun to shake up the day and give the teachers a minute to prepare for something else — and meanwhile, it's impossible because moms and dads are all trying to work and manage everything else and help with younger siblings," she said. "But if you can take turns and just spruce up the day a little bit, I think, 'How fun.' How fun for the kids and how great for the teachers and for everyone."