What to Do After a School Shooting

What to do after a school shooting

Today’s parents in the United States are regularly confronted with the horror of yet another school shooting. Each time this happens, we feel angry and anguished, grieving the tragedy and overwhelmed by what this means for our own children. Our faith compels us to cry out against violence and evil. God promises to hear our…

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A Prayer for A School Shooting

prayer for school shooting

Again. Again. Again. Again. How long? How long. How long By what we have done And what we have failed to do, We have our children’s blood on our hands. Hear our cry, God of Justice. Heal our wounds, Prince of Peace. Help our brokenness, Spirit of Truth. We cannot live like this.Which is why…

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Love and Hope in Troubling Times

finding God in troubling times

“Let’s be present in the rain.”  It was the end of May: precisely that time of year where I’m reeling from the exhaustion of both teaching and parenting. There is so much that happens in May; it’s the busy culmination of the school year where the days get longer and evenings are peppered with band…

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Reading Micah While the World Burns

reading Scripture

This past summer some women from church decided to gather on Wednesday evenings to read Scripture. We rotated hosting responsibilities and, after the initial chit-chat and snack table perusal, settled into backyard lawn chairs to read a chapter aloud from the book of Micah. Yes, that Micah. The Biblical minor prophet, the “do justly, love…

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Home and Hope: Your Turn

This Week on Mothering Spirit Sarah’s essay challenged us to reexamine our understanding of home. Kimberly’s prayer (in both English and Spanish) invited us to find God right where we are, within the simple joys of family life. Resources to keep reflecting A prayer for migrants and refugees. For more essays from Sarah Bahiraei, read El-Roi at the…

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When You Do Not Want To Give Thanks

It’s been a hard month, hasn’t it? In our small corner, it was the shock of twins. The exhaustion of early pregnancy. The darkness of morning sickness. And the upheaving of expectations. But in the wider world, it was Paris and Beirut and Syria and so many million more places where the earth is broken and…

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I have a first-grader

I have a first grader

Every morning my son goes off to school. He slings a giant shark backpack over his tiny shoulder, and he waves to me as I drive away from the carpool lane. And every morning as he turns into the school’s open door, the same fear catches my heart. What if that is the last time…

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the sheer aliveness of tonight

My children seemed even smaller today, even more fragile and fleeting. The whole day shifted, slanted towards helpless with the news from Newtown. Everything felt ugly and overwhelming and exhausting, like being punched in the chest, the core of my heart. What to say or do or think in the face of horror, of violence…

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