Yes, it's a dog article! But the way I see it, God made us and our children. God gave us the amazing animals we've come to know as companion dogs. We are stewards.

This article is from the Bark magazine. Included is how much daily exercise time is recommended for different age groups, including children - with or without a dog. ;-)

I've been thinking about this every time I sit and play gin rummy with my mom, a devout Presbyterian. She doesn't gamble - doesn't believe in it and I understand that the very concept of card playing is controversial but bear with me.

You are dealt a hand, given resources. Then you are offered more resources. You get to pick and choose whether or not you use them, save them, or get rid of them. Sometimes you work with a partner. As you do this, you may find that different combinations are worth more or less to you, depending on what the other folks use up, save, or discard...

Just a teachable moment that I'd never really thought about. My mom loves board games. Though it's gotten harder for her to focus, she still plays one card game. My kids love to play either... Me, not so much. When we 're small we learn about life through pretending and the games we play as well as our real life experiences...As we get older, play takes different forms. An odd way to think about stewardship, but I was thinking about stewardship.

The other day I was trying to find an author who's name I couldn't remember which makes the task rather challenging...he wrote about Genesis and creation from some new angles. Whatever it was that I read at the time, I was particularly drawn to his looking at "dominion" as caring for as opposed to absolute dictatorship but alas . . we don't know who it was.

So as I was searching...I found it interesting (apart from catch words, fads, and media hype) that there is an ever growing focus on our relationship as believers to the natural world. On line, anyway, it seems to fall into the ecology/environmental venue. I shouldn't be surprised. This generation of  parents is more relational, more holistic, more focused on networking and community and being individuals with a role to play but part of something bigger . . . It's just interesting how we work through our faith with global issues....

As an aside...there's a forward going around about an old lady who didn't bring her cloth bag to the grocery store but it gives a rather unique, and perhaps comforting for some of us, perspective the stewardship and "recycling" of the last generation...ok...my generation ...read it before you delete it...

Doctors' orders! Enjoy the outside world God created ...even if it's currently hiding under a white blanket...

No Mediogre Kids

Interesting, interesting, interesting! Check it out!

Ideas Unlimited. Very simple, potentially interactive ways to tell Bible stories to your youngest audiences...

Child in Church and Culture from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada: introduction to a project. You'll like the quote at the beginning.

Summary of the project: "Come To The Table: Landing the Missional Church in Canada", a research project by Shelley Campagnola.

This one is about VBS

Here, at the Children's Spirituality site you will find enough reading material to keep you reading for years!! Enjoy!

eternal life

Someone was looking for "Jesus gives eternal life." He does.

The passage that totally changed my understanding of eternal life (and I will spend the rest of my breathing years pondering it) is John 17:1-4. Read it in context. I think the passage following (and I'd not seen it this way before today...I think the passage following is probably a really good picture of what it means to be a disciple and to disciple others. That's what children's ministers do, right? Disciple others?

We have the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19*. You can revisit the places where Jesus' disciples specifically asked Him about eternal life like Luke 10**. Here are references from the gospels. John's gospel is particularly full of references to explore. Which of these passages are part of stories? Then there's Paul's letters even though he wasn't actually walking with Jesus like John was...



*This is in the NAS so you get the cross references if you want to compare the story details in the different gospels. You can switch from NIV to NAS on any of these studies for cross references. You can also look at the stories in the NIRV.

** Remember to read all of these passages in context...Put yourself there listening to all that God did when Jesus sent these 70 people out in His name. Notice the reference to "infants". Notice Jesus full of blessing.

Then it says, a lawyer stood up & asked him a question to "test" Him. Who was this guy? Why was he there? Was he one of the 70? Had he just returned with the others? Imagine going off on an amazingly successful evangelism/deliverance project like the one Luke describes and coming back to the debrief and the celebration (Jesus seems ecstatic, too, by the way) and someone stands up saying. . .

"This was amazing, it was, but what do I do to inherit eternal life?"

Notice that Jesus responds to the lawyer's question with a question. Notice where he sends the man. (He sends this lawyer back to God's law) Notice how the man even answers Jesus' question correctly . . . "But..." the scriptures say the man tries to justify himself and Jesus tells them a story...

What if the man had just left it at that and hadn't tried to "justify himself"? What if he had just reveled in the success and he hadn't asked the question? What do all these passages show us about Jesus? About God? About His Holy Spirit? About us?

What were we talking about? Eternal life...What do these stories about Jesus, and the stories Jesus told, have to say about "eternal life?"

If you've been praying for this to end, thank you for that. I've tried & kept finding more to say but I'm slowing way down. Haven't had any comments or feedback for a very very very long time. Intentionally didn't start any new books this year because I'd be tied to this for another year (or more). Over the Easter season, I tried looking at and listening for kids in the lectionary but that's something you can do yourself if you're interested. Five years ago, I think this blog helped some people connect. Now there are lots of bloggers networking about "postmodern" ministry to children.

Although there are some inexpensive activity ideas woven in here and there but it's more pondering than activity ideas. I hope you'll find some new thinking tools here. If you're reading a book, if you're looking at the scriptures, consider doing it with a couple of coworkers or parents or both.

What do we want to do? We want our kids to love Jesus, to love God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We want them to learn to love people. We want to give kids life long faith tools and teach them how to use them. We want to teach them how to learn from God's words & actions & stories. We want to teach them how to see God working in their day to day lives and how to interact with Him and stay faithful (because God is faithful) through the good, the bad, and the ugly. We want to kindle and feed the desire to press on to know God for who He is. We want to constantly affirm to them that no matter how old they are they play an integral part in their faith community and the greater world - in God's world. We want them to do what God says and we want to be examples to them - God's representatives, God's ambassadors, the way Jesus was to His world.

There's no end to books & blogs & thoughts & opinions. If you have Father/Son/Holy Spirit, His Word, a faith community and you're able to use/give all that God's given you as an individual you've got it all. If I find something interesting I'll post it but otherwise, I have nothing more to say.

faith & explanations

Thinking about Bible stories, faith, children and grown-up explanations. Here's the thing. If you have a child who vividly believes God's stories just as they are, to explain them away steals the wonder and awe and, quite frankly potential for worship, moments of faith, moments of believing. Why would we steal that from a child?

We complain because our children don't believe anymore. It's not like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy...or maybe that's how we see the scriptures. You're too old to take them at face value. You're too old to believe that stuff anymore...you're too smart to take it literally...

Is that what we do - mishandle childlike faith, explain it away, laden it with rules until there is no faith - no desire to walk with God in the cool of the day and listen to His stories and talk to Him?

As I recall, Jesus was a magnet. All kinds of people, all ages, came to listen to him. They hung on his every word.

Loving God with all your heart (something children have so much of), all your mind (the capability to know & understand - something destined to keep growing & developing as children grow into adults), all your soul (that deep ever-present place that's always searching & wanting more of God), all your strength (something that grows and changes with age & experience).

These words of Jesus are in the same chapter as the story of the Transfiguration and Jesus healing the boy. Are we keeping a child from sin by explaining something? Sometimes. Are we stealing a moment of faith and belief by explaining something? Sometimes. If we tie a millstone filled with faith undermining explanations around a child's neck that keeps them from faith - do we cause them to sin? If so, we need to look again.

Check out Mark 10:13-16. These passages about children are near each another in the gospels.

If sinning is missing the mark then what does it mean to hit the mark? Loving the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, strength & loving my neighbor as myself? What do God's stories have to do with that?

Maybe it's worth looking at how the simple act of telling God's stories nurtures faith in children, and how we can facilitate without getting in the way. I think that's some of the thinking in Jerome Berryman's work.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. For children, God's Word takes the form of story, parable, proverb, and 10 commandments that Jesus summed up into two. God's Word grows faith in us. God's stories grow faith in children. That same Word takes form in us as we hear & believe- I would venture to say- no matter how old we are. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We need to take care lest we undermine that.

Outside Resources

Nature Net recommended books

Nursery Nature Walks

This is a really interesting website: DoSomething.org

The thing that's neat about it (if you explore the site) is that you can pick an issue, pick how much time (as little as 1 minute), pick who you want to work with (alone, a group of friends or church, an organization), pick where and they will give you ideas. ex. Preventing Bullying, 1 minute, Alone, here - Make a poster and hang it in your library.

Lots of ideas at many levels of involvement, information about different causes with the understanding that there may be different legitimate viewpoints and levels of passion. Check it out!

Kids & Stewardship

Stewardship -from dictionary.com

a steward

-manages someone else's property or finances.

-manages someone else's household, shopping, feeding & managing servants

- responsible for a specific table in a restaurant to wait on guests, feed them, see to their needs, wants, comfort

- (on a ship) manages those who serve others or waits on guests, feeds them, sees to their needs, wants, comfort

-supervises a group at a given function or event

- a flight attendant

-navy personnel who attend to officer's quarters & mess

-a keeper, a guardian, an overseer

Is a steward the same as a servant? Is stewardship the same as service?

What have you been given to steward? And your children? What have they been given to steward?

Does God steward? What does He steward? How does He steward? What about Jesus? The Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit steward? What about Adam & Eve? What were they given to steward? What have God's children been given to steward?

If you want a word study you can find "steward" in the KJV, NIV, NAS
You can find "stewardship" in the KJV and NAS.

If you read a passage like Luke 16:1-15
you can read the story and see what the story tells you OR you can go back and look specifically to see what the story tells you about stewardship. In one or two simple sentences, what will you tell a child about stewardship? Better yet, how do we show it? As a person. As a parent. As a teacher. As a family. As a faith community....

Make a list of what you've been given in one column and how you've managed it in the other. When you hand it back to Father/Son/Holy Spirit...not the list but the goods...what will He say?

Toddlers, Sharing, and the Christmas Story

The Christmas Story and sharing for toddlers...would it be theologically too-far-out-there to show God wrapping his baby son in a blanket from some high place in the clouds and handing it down to a young woman and her husband in a stable?

or....

the Inn Keeper sharing a place for a baby to stay...

the animals sharing their space with a baby ...

the angels sharing their song about a baby ...

the shepherds sharing their work time- taking time out from their sheep - to visit a baby...

the kings sharing their gifts with a baby ...

Joseph and Mary sharing their lives with a baby ...

We grownups know that baby today as the Son of God, "God with us," God's gift to us - Savior of the world, King of Kings, Lord of Lords ...

but children, especially little children, see a baby, a very special baby ...

Every Christmas we made things to give to people at Christmastime. I've been quite happy that for my kids (ages 20-29), Christmas is still a time for some very thoughtful personal creative giving.

Maybe giving isn't the same as sharing. Buying a loaf of bread for someone isn't the same as breaking your last loaf in half and giving half of it away...or all of it away...

. . .more to ponder ...

Give A Goat is a children's book about Heifer International.

more resources . . . but I regress...

Yes, and we love Bubbles, Rainbow, and Worms, too!

They used to have a Math book, One, Two Buckle My Shoe.

And if your kids are learning to read but hate reading and love Math check out the Step into Reading series and Hello, Reader - Math series.

And then there's the Brown Paper school book series.

But I regress...these days there are a multitude of math and science resources out there for young children and early readers that aren't just focused on creating "genius" but making learning fun and meaningful by creating opportunities for a child's whole being to interact with their world.

Seasons: It's Fall

In the liturgical church there is a cycle of seasons that revolve around the life of Christ. If I recall the original intention was to make sure people were presented with key stories and passages of scripture over a three year period. Some people think there are lots of passages of scripture that are just as important that get missed but that's a separate topic.

When we were homeschooling I discovered this wonderful book for preschoolers called, OPEN THE DOOR, LET'S EXPLORE by Rhoda Redleaf (Redleaf Press, St. Paul MN/Gryphon House, Beltsville, MD). There's a second book out now - OPEN THE DOOR, LET'S EXPLORE MORE. They use field trips as an approach to learning for preschool/kindergarten. They go outside and explore a theme and go inside and do new words, observations & discussion, identifying, speculating, stories, songs, finger plays, science, art, craft, cooking, that all tie in. Nice resources, book lists, song lists, finger play options. Examples: After-A-Rain Walk. Animal Life Walk. A Garden Walk. A Tree Walk. Home Walk. Truck Walk. But I really love these books. The first one is harder to find but looks like it's been republished. You can find book 2. The 2nd book has some of the same material from the first book.

So it's Fall in upstate NY. Harvest time. Do you do an outside Sunday class once every season to explore God's creation and changes of season? Do you go outside in the rain and talk about Noah? There are other references to rain in the scriptures you know. Do you go outside in the wind and talk about Elijah? Do you go outside to explore God's seasons and God's creation to see what they will tell you about the One who made them? Finding references to snow and cold might be a little more challenging but I bet they're there.

I don't think it would take much to use books like these, even if they weren't intended for Sunday School if you want to add another dimension to learning about God and His stories. After all, who made the outdoors?

And for all the references to seasons in the scriptures there are facets of God to explore through the scriptures not just for preschool and elementary aged children but for pre-teens and teens and young adults and the middle aged and the very old. What can we learn about God and ourselves through the seasons God has created to continue until this world is gone?

God isn't 1 dimensional or even 2 dimensional. Add dimensions to the opportunities you provide when you're teaching people about God and exploring the scriptures. God didn't make us 1 or 2 dimensional either. My husband designs global computer systems. I don't understand Him but God made him. And to tell you the truth, there are things He knows and understands about God because of who he is that I don't know and understand. I know them better because of him but I will never be who he is or able to do the things he does.

If you explore knowing God and your eyes are on Jesus, I think you will discover new ways to worship Him, Lord and Savior, Father, Creator God. The awe when you see a cathedral that (despite ulterior motives) displays a rather awesome love of God when you consider the labor and resources and design that went into it . . . the skill of a creative God designing the mind of a genius. . . atoms. . . gravity . . . sunset. . . the awe in a child discovering a worm wiggling on a wet sidewalk in the rain, touching it - acknowledge God's amazing creative power. Talk about what a worm does and how it helps us. What do we do (or not do) to help worms. Do you know? I don't. Worms are important. They make air holes in the soil (can't spell airate). Maybe I should find out how to help worms do their job.

If life was supposed to be just about me or just about me and God or just about Man I wonder if God would have bothered making everything else. But that's just speculation, isn't it. He gave us something to take care of and said, this is good.... Be awed by the things that awe you. Be awed by the things that awe the children around you. "Wow! Where did that come from?" . . . as you get older and "better informed" if you go back far enough and push through all the theories like pushing through bushes and brush (beware of ticks) . . . I think you'll find yourself in a place where you can't help but worship God.

John 6: Jesus the Bread of Life

So three parts of the same story. This is the third part - the long part of the story. Bread, eating, even being healed are all pretty concrete. Food and hospitality, Jesus' hospitality - another topic. How do kids feel when they're sick or hungry? How does that affect how they think? What they do?

I think bread used to mean more to people than it does to most of us today. Bread means more to you when you need it to survive. When you make your own bread day after day (think time and resources) - it's apt to mean more than buying a loaf of white bread in the store. Grinding the grain, harvesting the grain. Sights, smells, sounds, the touch of the dry grain grass or the floury dough, kneading, the smell of bread baking. Bread and grain-picking, grinding, dirt, sweat, making bread, baking bread, eating bread . . . Jesus - Bread of Life.

Activity: You can show the kids each part of the bread making process (grain to finished loaf) while a loaf is baking in the oven. Then you can eat it. That's the very best thing to do with a bread lesson.

The crowd finds Jesus on the other side of the lake, wondering how he got there. Miracles and full bellies - very physical needs being met. Jesus tells the people that they aren't following him for the miracles but because he fed them. He was a spiritual teacher meeting physical needs. The spiritual and physical of miracles - another topic.

Somehow even though they followed Him and wanted to make him king, they wanted to know how to obey - Jesus would later in this chapter tell them they really don't believe in Him.

Bread keeps you alive and healthy. Traditionally, it's a staple. You eat it, it's gone but it keeps you alive. It costs money.

Jesus told them, "²⁷Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." What does that look like for grown-ups? What does that look like for children? Working for food. You don't work, you don't eat. Working for food that would endure to eternal life, food that Jesus gives you like the bread he passed out. Jesus is talking about working for a food that will never go bad. . . food, sustenance that endures to eternal life. It will never spoil . . .The bread God is offering is, in fact, Jesus. God puts His seal of approval on this food, this bread, Jesus. God's seal of approval. That's pretty cool. Activity ideas?

The miracles Jesus accomplished were very concrete - healing bodies - feeding bodies.

²⁸Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Tell us what to do!

²⁹Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Work that children can do?

The people were connecting Jesus and the bread with Moses and the manna. Scripture. The stories of scripture. They ask, Are we understanding you, Lord? The people even say, "Lord, we want this bread you're talking about." They even quote scripture. But apparently they don't understand. Jesus points them back to the Father.

Jesus says in vs 35 "I am the bread of life." Here is a promise for you no matter how old you are: "He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Maybe the passages later in this chapter are for an older audience but there were probably children in the crowd while all this is going on. Kids who are never hungry? Kids who are never thirsty? Think about it! Activity: Songs are great for remembering scripture. Activity: When we pray can we humbly remind God and say, "Lord, You promised."

After all that Jesus said, after all the people experienced, after all that the people seem to understand Jesus says, "and still you do not believe." A humbling part of this story.

Another promise for grown-up and child. Jesus said, ^37"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." Hey! Jesus did that! 5000 hungry people came to Jesus and He didn't chase them away!

When we ask children to obey, do we use Jesus as an example? 38"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. [But here's the clincher]. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Another promise. A picture of God's caring? A picture of the work Jesus came to do? A picture of what obeying meant to Jesus?

And people start grumbling!! Why? ⁴²They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?" How can this man say, "God sent me." Sometimes we know people so well that we can't see or appreciate God moving and using them.

Verses 43-51, more promises.

Then it gets hard. Did these words make people think of the Jewish meat sacrifices? I don't know. Were there other things going on in the culture that might have caused a reference like this to turn them off? I don't know. If you had no experience with church, if you had no experience with communion, would Jesus' words turn you off? Lots here about bread. Lots here about Jesus - the bread sent from heaven.

We talk about concrete? Jesus seemed to be asking these people to take Him very very literally. They had eaten real bread and been healed of real diseases. And now He's speaking in the synagogue telling them they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood? This was before the days of communion as we know it. (I'm rushing through this. Feel free to go back and slow down and ponder.)

If they weren't already confused Jesus says "'Does this offend you? ⁶²What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! [another miracle] ⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. [wasn't Jesus just talking about flesh?] The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵He went on to say, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.'" Do we focus on some kind of predestination that says either we're chosen or we're not? God helps us see or He doesn't? That might be true. But isn't it also true that God enables us to come to Jesus and Jesus enables us to come to the Father? We can focus on that. I hope it's safe to say that even though He knows who will come and who won't, He wants us.

People left. No, not just "people left." The scriptures tell us, "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Jesus says,

⁶⁷"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. " This next part is one of my favorite passages:

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

This part is hard:

⁷⁰Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" ⁷¹(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)"

But you know what? Even knowing what Jesus knew, He kept Judas in his group of close followers. Judas had a role to play that most of us would never want to play. Jesus kept him as one of the Twelve. Activity: As a grownup or with a group of teens consider a word study about Judas. Every time you read a passage about Jesus addressing all 12 of His disciples or places where all Twelve were there listening, remember that any inclusive words Jesus spoke would have included Judas. See what you find. Wasn't he at that Passover meal eating the bread of Jesus' body and drinking the wine of his blood?

Lots to chew on. . . I mean, ponder. There are things in scripture we can easily bring to children. There are other things that we have to ponder ourselves and let them work deep in our own lives.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the amazing work He does to us, for us, and in us and those we love.

TCITB: Chpt 18:

from TCITB

Chapter 18
"Vulnerable Children, Divine Passion, and Human Obligation

by Walter Brueggemann

Brueggemann greets the reader with imagery of the she - bear of scripture (2 Sam. 17:8, Proverbs 17:12, Hosea 13:8) passionately poised to protect her young. He reminds us that God is like that. [TCITB p. 399-400].

He talks about nurturing our own young, generation after generation, with that same passion in the face of the ever-present temptations to take much easier cultural paths. It's easy to forget that, as he says, these paths are mediocre alternatives compared to the one that calls us to maintain our God-given identity and hold fast to much richer deeper memories, heritage (or tradition), and hope that we share following the Way of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He cites Exodus 12-13. He talks about the Passover celebration as a tool for recognizing that we are part of an "odd" community, a tool that helps impart not only the understanding that we are different but it is also a tool to share identity and worth with children. It gives parents opportunity to share not only what God did for Israel past but for "me," the parent. He talks about redemption in light of God-given value using examples of OT redemption but not without traditional evangelical language. [TCITB p. 400-406]

He talks about the need for saturation. He talks about the tendency for uninvolved children to question and challenge what is so very personal and present for their parents but scripture (and the Passover celebration) equip us and encourage us to be ready with answers. He suggests that perhaps the approach in Exodus 12-13 more targets younger children and Deut. 6, older children. [TCITB p. 402-5]

He reminds us that God told His people, "[when you grow prosperous. . .] do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt..." (Deut. 6:11-12) Among some subtle and less subtle references to affluence he says, "affluence will produce amnesia: by contrast, the sons and daughters of oddness will recognize that they have been treasured." [TCITB p. 407] He says that despite "saturation nurture in oddness . . . [i]t is predictable that in this saturation nurture some impatient, nearly contemptuous teenager will ask, "what is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?" [TCITB p. 407] He says, "Soon or late, the children of oddness must come to see that the oddness is about a demanding ethic that anticipates response to the requirements of YHWH. This community not only receives the world differently from YHWH; it also enacts the world differently in glad response to the many gifts of YHWH." [TCITB p. 408] He explains this better than I am.

He looks at Joshua 4. He talks about Israel and the stones at the Jordan. He says, "Now the community is moving stones around in the Jordan River. The narrative knows that if you move stones long enough through a complex narrative, some child will ask: 'what do these stones mean?" (Josh. 4:21) And then, once again, the adults are ready with an informed response both proclaiming the promise and acknowledging that we live by it. [TCITB p. 408-409] There is something here too to consider about story-telling and creating curiosity in children. You appreciate food more when you're hungry. I (usually) remember answers to the questions I ask better than random information.

Brueggemann says, "This entire set of transactions between parents and children represented in these three central texts is designed to inculcate the children into a particular version of reality that is rooted in miracle and that eventuates in covenantal obligation." [TCITB p. 409] This is an interesting discussion.

"With the fierce dedication of a she-bear, the parents intend to situate their children in this particular version of reality; the educational process is intense and insistent, because the life and identity of the children are at stake through this interaction, for life and identity of a particular kind are of course in jeopardy if children fall out of the lore of the family, whether by negligence, resistance, or seduction to other versions of reality." [TCITB p. 410] This is not so much a how to as it is vision and encouragement to saturate our children in that which will grow faith, identity, worth, and obligation as one of God's children.

Brueggemann talks about transition. He says, "Nurture and socialization are a process-through education, liturgy, and many forms of saturation-concerned for and contained within family and clan." The socialization process distinguishes between 'us' and 'them'. He sites Joshua 24:14-5. He says, "There is no doubt that the Old Testament expends immense energy on the 'in group'. . . Given that fact, however, it is also clear that the Old Testament, in its final form, also knows that 'the others' are on the horizon of faith and cannot be excluded from covenantal perspective." [TCITB p. 410] God is God of heaven and earth. He says, "In a contemporary society of narcissistic fear and acute self-preoccupation it is important to make the connection between familial peculiarity and a more inclusive awareness that issues in larger responsibility." He looks at how we can do that (extend our caring beyond our own circle) with the biblical passion of the she-bear. He encourages policy making focused on "protection, care and valuing that are as unconditional as the unconditional regard we know for our own children." [TCITB p. 411] Again, this is not a how-to but vision for saturating our children in a faith that will carry them through adversity to reach out and care for a world much greather than their own circle with that same passion they were raised with.

He emphasizes that children left alone without adult advocacy and protection even in our society are as vulnerable today as in ancient times. He proposes that biblical "'welfare' concerned not only food and physical safety, but also nurture in respect, dignity , and well-being" reflecting the very nature of God. [TCITB p. 412]

He cites Deuteronomy 10, Hosea 14, Psalm 10. In Psalm 68, he discusses God as father to those who by definition have no father. He notes the verbs in Psalm 146:7b-9 as powerful "doing" words and notes the people groups who benefit. [TCITB p. 415] He has a wonderful paragraph tying God's character to our obligation to do.

In the last pages of his article (and the book) Brueggemann makes a strong biblical argument in the form of cause and effect focusing on attitude adjustment that will ultimately lead to changes in our choices and actions reflecting IMO an ancient and fast disappearing "fear of the Lord'. [TCITB p. 4:16-4:20]

The author concludes showing us again how nurturing our own children and defending and caring for children who aren't our own are "elements of the same agenda." He cites Matt. 7:9-11, James 1:27, Malachi 4:5-6, John 14:18 to reinforce his point.

A nice conclusion for this book.

Do you know where your food comes from?

Went to my folks this week. A young couple is working the farm now. My girls stayed longer than I could stay and they heard this story. I thought it was rather amazing.

Apparently the young couple's 7 year old son was the only child in his small rural class who knew where their food came from - meat comes from animals, eggs come from chickens, milk comes from cows. Bread-flour-grain. Vegetables come from gardens...BECAUSE he helps his grandma in the garden and he's on the farm with his parents while they're working when he isn't in school. They probably do other things, too but they work incredibly hard to make ends meet and I'm not even sure how often ends meet. Anyway ... it's not like he read it in a book although he might have. Is this no longer critical information? Is it enough to know that our food comes from the grocery store? What does it say about our relationship with all that God has made and made available to us?

I can't seem to find it but I read somewhere a great quote. The heart of it was that Native Americans respected the land they lived on because they depended on it for their survival. Yes, they hunted. Yes, they gathered, but they didn't waste. They only used what they needed. They had a visible, tangeable, practical day to day relationship with God's creation. Anyone who lives off the land . . . and knows that their livelihood depends on it on a day to day basis learns to respect it. There's give and take.

I found the story rather amazing, especially in a very rural - once farm community - very small town. If kids in the country don't know where their food comes from I can't imagine other kids do. It was just interesting. Yes, God is creator and source of our food and all that we need but it's about understanding and respect and appreciation. It's all tied together.

more thoughts about children and work

Many kids in my generation and more so in my parents and grandparents' generations grew up with real work to do. When my kids were little I was one of those people who was afraid of making my kids work "too hard." I didn't want to use them for "slave labor." I didn't want to make them do the things I didn't want to do so I didn't have to do them. Whatever...

At this point in my life I think that if you fall into that kind of thinking you miss the fact that God made us with plans for work*. Doing a good job has it's own intrinsic rewards. Being able to do something you love and get good at it, have others notice and ultimately have others ask you to do the job because you are so good at it is rewarding in itself with or without monetary compensation.

On the one hand you're trying to build a good work ethic in kids that will grow and carry them through adulthood (including doing a job just because it has to get done.) On the other had you're giving kids the privilege of work that can be just as meaningful for children at any age as it is for adults. Work grows self-confidence and self-worth. A child feels needed. They have an important job to do. They have a way to contribute to the good of their family unit.

Children can earn privilege. They can work to earn the privilege of more and more responsibility by remembering a chore, doing a good job, doing an extra good job. They earn trust.

If you have a group of kids working together you very quickly figure out who delegates, who manages, who manages shrewdly, lol! As kids grow, maybe they earn the privilege of doing the jobs they love most, and doing the things they're best at by doing the jobs they hate with a good attitude.

So what can toddlers do? Break down the jobs you do as a grown up.

Washing plastic dishes.
Folding towels and wash cloths.
Putting plates by each chair.
Putting napkins on a table.
Handing out programs.
Putting a Bible on each chair.

When I was old enough I sat by my mom when she played the organ and turned the pages. Even before I could read music she would nod and I would turn the page.

Picking wild flowers or garden flowers and bringing them to someone who is sick.
Running water in a plastic vase.

Spreading peanut butter or jelly on a piece of bread, though you may not want toddlers working with food for other people except in small family-type groups.

Picking fruit
Washing fruit
Passing out cookies.
Passing out paper cups.
Picking up empty communion cups and then washing hands.
Washing hands and putting out communion cups.

Helping change the colors on an altar or helping set a communion table (standing on a chair)

Picking up old programs or papers and throwing them away.
Handing out pens or pencils
Holding a collection bag
Putting new candles in candle holders
Blowing out candles

Putting out music folders for musicians. Why not paste or draw a picture of the instrument on the front of the folder and let a toddler put it on the chair by the instrument. (Yes, you walk with them so they don't knock over the guitars. Maybe their reward is hitting the drum a couple of times when they finish. Why not?)

All of this - not alone but helping a grown up. Look at all the grownup jobs people do at home or at church. If you have a toddler, a pre-schooler, an elementary aged child, a pre-teen, or a teen by your side - what can they do to help?

Maybe they won't do it the way you do. If you're not hounding them all the time and you make sure you praise them for details well done, you can correct and adjust when you need to. Just don't discourage them. Be grateful.

Pair older people with younger people. What about pairing people who can't hear well with younger children - or children who like to talk loud. You'd have to train these young ear-pieces. (Not during worship but maybe for the before or after fellowshipping.) It can still be too loud but you get the idea. What do older people find hard that little people can do for them? Bending over? Picking things up off the floor?

As I say, you get the idea. Use your imagination!


* Interesting to read this passage in context, thinking about work. It seems a contradiction but apparently it isn't. And there's Romans 12:1. Again, go back and read the passage in context (the whole chapter) thinking, not just about spiritual gifts but about the physical work we do with our bodies - our spiritual service of worship. Then bring children into the picture and see what God will show you.