There is so much to share. We are so limited in our Sunday school hour, but I was grateful to have an intentional time to gather face-to-face and to communicate that you are not alone, that you are awesome parents, and that the church is here to help support you as you walk your own journey of faith and do your best to help your child to walk that same journey.
I wanted to share some resources with you.
"Why I make Sam Go to Church" - This is a chapter from the book Travelling Mercies by Anne Lamott. If you've not read a book of hers, I highly recommend it (based on recommendations from friends and my wife). This chapter is a wonderful reminder of why we bring our kids to church. Coming to church has a lot to do with being a part of a community of faith and not just hoping that you can impart specific beliefs about Christianity into your child's head. People's faith is formed by looking over the shoulders of admired, older Christians, taking up a way of life that has been made real and accessible through this person's witness.
Ideas for nurturing a child spiritually - Helpful information put together by The Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, which was an effort put together by the Search Institute (the center is no longer "alive"). The list includes how children may be developing spiritually, what you may be experiencing as a parent, and specific ideas of how you can nurture your child's spirituality. The list is broken up into ages birth-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-14, and 15-18.
To You - a litany/prayer by Ann Weems that we read at the end of our time together. Beautiful reminder of the importance of cherishing your children.
My notes from our time together - includes quotes from books about the importance of parents in the role of faith formation, and a definition of faith and the implications for our child's faith formation.
Parenting resources - several resources that are online and a couple of books to help with your role as primary faith former [don't forget - God does play a role in faith formation as well :)]
Ideas for how to create nurture your child's spirituality every day - pretty self-explanatory
Don't be overwhelmed at the number of resources. Take a look, read at your leisure (what leisure?), and try something out. Don't try out 18 different ideas - just pick one and really work at it.
All people learn
- 10% of
what he hears
- 20% of
what she reads
- 50% of
what he sees
- 90% of
what she does
Keep on keeping on. Be reminded that there is a community of faith who supports you and wants to help as we travel this journey together. And there is a God who never leaves us, who never stops caring about us, and who continues to call us to love God with all of who we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Not just to make sure that our kids do this but that we do as well.
Whatever you do with your life—whatever you end
up achieving or not achieving—the great gift you have in you to give to the
world is the gift of who you alone are; your way of seeing things, and saying
things, and feeling about things, that is like nobody else’s. If so much as a
single one of you were missing, there would be an empty place at the great
feast of life that nobody else in all creation could fill.
- Frederick Buechner
