Posts Tagged ‘Scripture’
4 Scripture Stories for Mothers
Scripture offers tender images of God caring for us like a loving mother. But we don’t often get the chance to sit with these beautiful passages. Let yourself pray with a new image of God this week. God as comforting mother “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13) Jesus…
Read MoreLingering on Saturday: As a Hen Gathers Her Brood
I lean back at the bottom of the blue plastic slide, aware of my hair sticking to the static, the sandburs piercing the soles of my shoes, and our English words echoing off the wall that lines the perimeter of the park, our clunky foreignness flittering up to the open windows. The playground in this…
Read MoreJoy Shows Her Finest
Lessons on Goodness from the Basketball Court and Beyond And God saw everything that was created, and, indeed, it was very good. Translation inspired by Genesis 1:31 (The New Interpreters’ Study Bible) I stand at center court in an old, smelly elementary school gym as eight first-grade boys stand along the baseline, squirming with energy,…
Read MoreHow To Behold Your Child
Behold. It’s a powerful word in Scripture. An invitation to stop and pay attention. To open our eyes because God is about to do something new. What if we tried to behold our life? To behold our children. To try to see them with God’s eyes. With love. And compassion. And hope. Let yourself try…
Read MoreComfort Me, Know Me, Hold Me
Lord, when I pray to You as my Father, do not allow my human mind to limit You to my human understanding of what it means to be father or mother. I pray that our limits of human language do not hide who You truly are to every one of Your children. You are Spirit,…
Read MoreA Turn of the Kaleidoscope
It was a long-overdue dermatologist appointment. With my pale skin and family history of melanoma, I really need to be checked every year, but it had been more than five since I’d donned an open-backed gown; this was just one of many things that got lost in the shuffle of mothering small children. When I…
Read MoreLenten Scriptures for Parents
Parents and children are at the heart of Lent. Let these Scripture passages remind you of the power of sharing your faith with your kids in this sacred season. Teaching children You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and…
Read MorePrayers for When Your Child is Sick
1. A Breath Prayer The easiest prayers for a sick child, to pray at their bedside as you keep vigil while they are suffering. Pray one line as you breathe in and one line as you breathe out. Inhale: Heal my child, Lord. Exhale: Heal me, too. Inhale: You love my child. Exhale: Help me…
Read More3 Ways to Pray about Your Phone Use as a Parent
Holly’s essay about video games and Meta’s blessing for a child’s first phone got us thinking about more ways to pray about technology and our families. What would you add to the list to approach our own screen time as parents from a faith perspective? 1. Pray about your own screen time 2. Make a…
Read More3 Practical Tips When You’re Wrestling With Faith
1. Turn to well-worn prayers. Try these by Thomas Merton and St. Anselm of Canterbury if you need words for your wondering or wandering. 2. Pray with the story of Jacob wrestling with God. The same night [Jacob] got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the…
Read More3 Ways to Pray through Epiphany
1. Light a candle before dinner tonight. Ask your kids to see if you can sit in silence together for a whole minute. Enjoy whatever moment of quiet you can get with this symbol of Christ’s light. 2. Write down one new thing you have learned about God in the past year—even a small “epiphany.”…
Read More3 Ways to Pray through Christmas
1. Pray with Luke 2:41-52 that inspired Anna’s essay. What word or phrase speaks to you as a parent here? Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started…
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