Meditations on Motherhood: Mother's Day 2010

You may have heard me say it - my children have been the best teachers of faith I have ever had. As I think back on all the things I have learned about God from being a mother, I see how being Alex and Josh's mother has changed the way I understand God, shaped the way I live out my faith and kept me continually focused on what really matters. Here are some of the things I have discovered on my journey as a Christian mother:

Life is washable: To quote the Hymnal, this “saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance" (UMH, 892): a little soap and water can cure a whole host of things, and what it can't doesn't really matter. Green footprints on the carpet (Alex put food coloring in the dog's water one St. Patrick's Day morning, spilled the water, stepped in it and THEN came to tell me he had made a mess!) DO come out with a bit of elbow grease. Sin is a bit harder, but baptismal water is REALLY effective. The major learning here was to relax and enjoy the gift God gave me in my children, not worry about the furnishings or the mistakes.

God's love really is THAT big: I grew up with the notion of God as a stern and judgmental father. In that euphoria that followed the birth of each of my children - as I was overwhelmed with unconditional love for these small and amazing beings - I realized that if I loved my children than much, how much more did God love both them and me?

The small stuff MATTERS: Not things like taking out the trash, but ants and butterflies and blueberries ripening on the vine. Both of my boys are explorers who marvel at things I take for granted everyday. My boys have taught me that the sacred is revealed in the business of birds building a nest and leaves changing from bud to full blown (did you know that the new leaves of Japanese maple trees feel like raccoon's paws? I didn't, but Alex thought they did!). Joshua's class is watching worms become butterflies and he announced, eyes full of wonder as he got off the bus yesterday, "Mama, we saw a MIRACLE today!" How much of God's goodness and creativity I would have missed had I not had these guides to point them out along the way.

Forgiveness is more than possible: As I think about the ups and downs of family life, I know both how important and how possible forgiveness is. I am often overwhelmed with gratitude for two boys who can forgive the flaws of a menopausal, most of the time tired and often- times cranky mother. They not only forgive me, they love me anyway and because of it all. They have been wonderful role models to me in how to live a life of forgiveness. I find it easier to forgive because they so generously and regularly forgive me.

These are just a few of the things to which my children have opened my eyes.. I'll bet you have stories like mine where because of something your children did or said, you suddenly saw faith with new eyes and recognized God's presence in a new way. Would you share those stories with us?

Faithfully,

Elizabeth

Waiting

I suspect that I am one of the few people who love the short days and the early nights. Ever since I was a little girl, I have yearned for the darkness and silence of December evenings. The dark is luscious, rich, deep, and I feel enveloped and held by it.

It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I became aware that the time of early darkness coincided with the season of Advent. Suddenly, my love of the darkness made sense to me. I am such an extroverted personality – and I have been all of my life – that it is difficult for me to be still, to wait, to be contemplative. As the darkness creeps in around 4:00 PM, I can feel my body go quiet and still. Without willing it, without any work on my part, I find myself still and waiting.

I know now that what I wait for in the stillness is the fullness of God to grow within me. For me, the darkness is pregnant with possibility and hope. As I rest in the silence, God’s voice gets stronger within me. My deepest yearnings surface and I find myself looking at my self and my gifts in new ways. I see the world more clearly and I begin to puzzle out how God might be asking me to make a difference, to contribute more to the world around me, to be a light that shines in the darkness. The themes of Advent echo through the darkness to me in an almost embodied way. I feel the rhythms of new life pulsing inside me. It is holy time.

This Advent, I invite you to let the darkness envelop you and your family. Rather than try to cram as much as you can into the holiday season, let the early coming of night wrap your family in a cocoon. Light your Advent wreath at dinner and linger a few moments before dashing off to making lunches for tomorrow, catching up on email/voicemail and starting the kids off on their homework. Just rest in each other and the candles glow. Don’t direct the conversation or feel like you must accomplish anything productive. Just BE together and let the Holy Spirit fill you and yours. Wait. See what happens. Something new will come of it in God’s time.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth

Our Offering of Thanks and Praise

In this busy, stressful, competitive world of ours, we are focused on performance. What we do - and how well we do it - defines us. Or so we think anyway. We worry about what our friends, our familys, our neighbors, our bosses and a host of other folks think of us.

Thanksgiving is a time when we get to take a breath and realize that God does not judge us on our performance. God loves us simply because we ARE - each of us a unique creation reflecting "the image and likeness" (Genesis 1:26) of our Creator. This is where the heart of our thanksgiving prayer comes from - a realization that God loves us and gifts us with our talents, our livelihoods, our children, our homes, our food, etc simply because God LOVES us.

This coming Sunday, the 23rd, the Church School Chapel children will lead the congregation in the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful when they come into Church. While Kim has been faithfully teaching the hymn for several weeks now, it will not come out perfectly. Little voices will stumble over words, little hands will flutter like birds as we sing about mountains and there will be one or two children who simply aren't paying attention. And none of that will matter. The children's singing is not a performance. It is an OFFERING - and that is something quiet different. The children are leading us in celebrating all the "bright and beautiful" things with which God has gifted us. They bring their voices and their hearts to the altar as an "offering of praise and thanksgiving," as the Book of Common Prayer names it. The need for perfection vanishes when thanksgiving is the purpose of the offering. God asks only for our grateful hearts; off-key voices, mixed-up words and shyness don't matter a bit. What matters is that they are offering back to God the love God has given them.

That is what each of us are asked to do every day. God neither expects nor requires perfection. God asks only for grateful hearts sharing love with others. So this Thanksgiving week, let the children lead you. Stop worrying about whether or not the turkey will be dry or if there will be enough mashed potatoes - come to your Thanksgiving table with a grateful heart. You will not leave empty.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth

The Top Ten Reasons Why Children Are Welcome in Church

From our friends in the Diocese of Western MA via a parishioner:

• Repeated exposure to the sights, sounds and symbols of the Eucharist help form all Christians.
• Children like sitting in those usually empty front pews so they can see and hear what is going on.
• It would be costly to repaint all those signs to read, "The Episcopal Church Only Welcomes Adults."
• Teaching young children to enjoy and participate in the service helps them become active and worshipping adults.
• There are no pop quizzes as the communion rail!
• Children have their own unique relationships with God. Being in Church helps them learn how to pray, sing, worship, and otherwise strengthen that relationship.
• If children aren't in Church, who are the candy-wrapping, restless, coughing whispering adults going to blame for the noise?
• Sunday services make great family togetherness time. Use the quiet space for extra hand-holding or snuggling time that may get lost during a busy week.
• Children teach us what absolute joy looks like - and what better palce to experience that in Church?
• And the number one reason why children are welcomed in the Church: the Circle of God's family is incomplete without them!

We look forward to seeing you and your children on Sunday!

Faithfully,

Elizabeth

"There's Gonna Be a Floody, Floody"

It seems to have been raining forever. As I drove to Church last Sunday morning, I found myself humming that old camp favorite, "The Lord said to Noah 'There's gonna be a floody, floody." I first sang that song at vacation Bible School too many moons ago to mention, but prompted by circumstance, it sprang unbidden to the forefront of my consciousness.

I continued to hum it as I set up Church School snack and made classrooms ready. When Kim Lysaght arrived before Children's Chapel, I mentioned that I had been singing it and with a laugh, she pulled the lyrics from her music bag and said, "I thought it might be fun to sing with the kids this morning." She was right.

I watched Kim's face as she introduced the song to the children and told them that she had sung it when she was a girl. You could see the joy that the memory gave her and the delight she took in sharing it with a new group of children. Kim and I sang and laughed as we watched yet another generation learn "So, rise and shine and give God your glory, glory."

It was a small moment in a very busy Sunday, but these kinds of moments are the things faith is made of. As parents and faith educators, we never know just what of all the many things we say and do our children absorb and remember. But those small moments are stored in the hearts and souls of our children, ready to spring out - unbidden - when something triggers the memory. In my case, it was several days of rain. But there have been times of crisis in my life when a distant memory of something I learned in Church School or a bit of a hymn I sung in the Junior Choir years ago filled my heart and sustained me in a difficult moment. God became real and present because of the love and faith poured into the foundation of my soul as a child.

This is why faith development matters. It is never about whether or not a child can recite the Tne Commandments or the Lord's Prayer - although those are good things to learn. It is about the truth of God's love and grace woven into the very fiber of our souls as we grow and mature. Sometimes, it seems as though those seeds lie dormant forever, but in God's time, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, that grace bursts into flower in the moments when we need it most.
So today I give thanks for all of those who so graciously share the faith memories of what they have been given with the next generation of Christians, not just here at Christ Church, but around the world. Just like the rain, each small gift of faith is a drop in the bucket, but the entire bucket overflows into the world and makes visible the love of God. Pretty amazing stuff!

Faithfully,

Elizabeth

P.S. I am moving on to the last verse of the song in the hope that it is prophecy, "The sun came out and dried out the landy, landy . . ."

God's Abundant Grace

“We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of
God that has been granted . . .” 2 Corinthians 8:1

The apostle Paul begins most of his letters with some salutation that refers to the great grace of God that has been granted to believers, and the beginnings of 2 Corinthians 8 is no different. Christians have received a great grace through Jesus Christ and those of us who follow in footsteps of the apostles are also called to share the grace we have been given with others. At Christ Church, one of the many ways we see this grace being shared is in the Church School.

Adults who teach, mentor and lead worship with our children each Sunday morning are doing their very best to share the grace of God with the youngest members of our parish family. These adults serve as stewards of the faith that they graciously share and pass on to our children. Christians are formed. None of us becomes mature in the faith without the assistance of others sharing our experiences of what it means to follow Jesus. We would not have our faith without the faithfully stewardship and witness of those who work with our children Sunday after Sunday.

Being a steward of the faith is a calling worthy of respect and support. We tend to think that to teach Church School, we need to be great repositories of information about Christianity. Folks tend not to want to teach because they feel they don’ know enough; we get confused over which prophet came first, what an epistle actually is and in which Gospel can you find the parable of the leaven. None of this is required, nor is it important in the long run. Teaching in the Church School is a leap of faith made out of what we have experienced of God’s grace and goodness in Jesus. Our thankful hearts and a willingness to share them is all teaching is about. The rest of it comes with good curriculum materials (which we have) and support from the Director of Family Ministries (all it takes is a phone call or an email). As in most of Christian life, the Holy Spirit meets our intentions and once we commit to sharing the faith, what we need to do so is provided for us.

So as you think about how you can be a faithful steward of the grace you have been given in Jesus over the next few months, please give prayerful thought to teaching in the Church School. We still have openings to teach in the 3rd & 4th grade and I am looking for one more teacher in the 5th and 6th grade. We also can always use volunteers to fill in on a Sunday morning when a teacher is absent or to help out with a special craft or outreach project. And as you continue to pray about how you might be a faithful steward, please remember Kim Lysaght, Diane Gaitely, Patty Smith, Barbara Diener, Melyne Nagel, Kim Rutherford, Kevin Ruddy, Joe Barr, Nancy Lankford, Ginny Yerardi, Bob Keener, Sarah Heath, Dusty Hecker and Joe Leghorn in your prayers. These stewards need your support in prayer to be faithfully with our children each Sunday.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth

"We Will, with God's Help

One of my very favorite moments during the Baptism service is when the congregation is asked, "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?" And we answer back, "We will with God's help." When we take part in a baptism as members of the Christian family, we become responsible for forming the faith of that new Christian in our parish family. As the service then moves to the part where the baby or children or family walk down the aisle and are greeted by the congregation, we tend to focus on how cute the baby is and not think so much about what we have just promised to do.

But long after the baby has gone home and changed out of the christening gown, we remain charged with the responsibility of helping that child of Christ grow into a mature faith. It is an awesome responsibility - and one that is also full of fun and wonder along the way. None of us really believe that we are mature enough in the faith ourselves to form the faith of others - and who among us really is? But the Holy Spirit rests on each of us and works through us whether or not we have theological educations and completely understand what we profess to believe ourselves.

We must nurture our faith and give the Holy Spirit something to work with. Attending Bible study, reflecting on the weekly lessons, daily prayer and meditation, talking with our partner or another member of the Church are all ways in which we can invite the Holy Spirit to help our faith grow. But that is not enough. No matter where we are in our faith journey, we are also called to share what ever we know and have experienced. Whether we are two or ninety-two, a Christian has been touched by God's love in Jesus and can share that with others.

The Church School is one place where we make manifest our promise to"support these persons in their life in Christ." To pass on our faith to the next generation requires adults who are living out their baptismal promise in an intentional and specific way by committing to teach. At Christ Church, we are blessed with many adults who do just this the seventeen Sundays a year that Church School meets. Some of them are very experienced Christians who are easy about sharing their faith and comfortable with questions. Many of them arrive on Sunday with curriculum materials clutched to their chests, hope in their hearts and a prayer on their lips. And no matter what they know or don't, the Holy Spirit works through them, and our children learn that not only do they matter to God, they matter to these adults who take the time to be with them on Sunday mornings. After almost twenty years as a professional Christian educator, I have come to believe that this is the only Church School lesson that really matters - if they leave here on Sunday morning knowing that God loves them and so do we, we have been faithful to our vow to support them in their life in Christ. The tools for living out that love come along through constant exposure to the great stories of the Bible, from participation at worship, from sharing laughter and fellowship with others who are hungry for the Good News of God in Christ and who are trying to figure out what it all means together. A Church School teacher needs only a willingness to be a channel of the Holy Spirit. We all know more than we think we do and teaching Church School lessons is a good way to figure out what we already know and fill in some of the blanks of what we don't.

So - here is my invitation to you to prayerfully consider joining the Church School teaching team and support our young Christians in their lives in Christ this fall. We still have spots that only YOU can fill. I will guarantee that you will have fun, learn more about your own faith and meet some pretty awesome Christians there. And really, where else in your life can you play with glitter glue and model magic?

Faithfully,

Elizabeth