Child of God, Welcome to Church!

This month, in Mustard Seeds, we are talking about being a child of God and being in a faith family.  We know we have mommies and daddies and other relatives, but a faith family also includes others who help us grown in our faith.  

On our first Sunday in Mustard Seeds, we decorated a candle with multicolored tissue paper.  The colors are similar to stained glass windows we commonly see at church.

Our multicolored candles and the stained glass windows can symbolize how the pieces of a church and the pieces of our faith family work together as part of a bigger picture: God.  We support each other, work with each other and play with each other, and together we create a beautiful, complete picture of what the kingdom of God can look like.  I invited the parents (and you, if you decide to make one!) to light the candle when they are having some quiet, getting-to-bed time with their child.  That moment when, despite all the chaos of the day, we read a story, sing a lullaby, or tell stories to lull our children to sleep.  When you are done, you can bring it out of the room, extinguish it and put it somewhere special, to remember that you are children of God.  You can talk about how the candle has many colors around it, like all different people together make up part of what God looks like when we care for and help each other.

The following Sunday, the children used dot painters to decorate a paper tree with all kinds of colored dots.  They got a little crazy and made many dots!  Then the parents filled in names for each dot of people in their faith family.  We all have a “family tree”, but this is their “faith family tree”, which includes relatives, teachers, special day care providers, nursery workers, pastors, Sunday school teachers, even pets.  I included Mr. Rogers in mine, even though I didn’t personally know him, but he taught me so much about love, patience, expressing feelings and listening to part of myself, which helps me understand right and wrong. Anyone can be in your faith family.  Who is in your faith family? Your child’s?  Don’t forget to put your child on your faith family tree.  We can learn so much from our children about God when we listen to and wonder with them. 

 

Next week, we will be learning about the church sanctuary and go on a look and find tour between services.  The children will be able to look, feel and experience all that our sanctuary inspires and symbolizes and our children can know that these rituals are for children as well as adults.  See you there!

Remembering to Start Fresh

In the Lutheran tradition, when children are baptized, the parents or sponsors are given a candle to light and remember the child's baptism each year.  The tricky part is that lighting a candle in a house with a newborn through about 20 years old is not easy.

How can we remember our children's baptismal anniversaries as well as any other children or adults that we have sponsored?  What about your own?

The first thing to do is to decide why we are marking this date. When your baby is first baptized, that item on your 'to-do' can get rolled in to all the other things we strive to do as parents.  We want to be the parent we always imagined we would be: responsible, raising our child faithfully, attending to all the details of taking care of a child's spiritual well-being.  To me, just merely reminding myself that I am a "child of God" felt elitist, like my baptism sets me apart from the non-baptized (though I know this is not the original intent) and I do not personally believe that this is true.  My heart and core believes believe that every child is special, and every child is God's creation, loved by God.  So what am I celebrating when I light that candle (if indeed I remember and accomplish getting it lit).  

Pastor Mike, of Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Kirkland says that we remember our baptism and the baptisms of those that we love and sponsor, by starting fresh.  In the baptism service, we say that we die to sin and are made new, and water reminds us of this blessing.  

I don't know about you, but I could sure use a fresh start sometimes.  With my husband, with my kids, with my Godchildren, with myself.  As a parent and as a bellwether of attitude and response for my family, I fall short of my expectations all the time.  Not just because they are sky-high and un-reachable, though that is the same problem I encounter with living as a child of God.  Note that I never fall short of God's expectations though.  She is the gossamer hand you almost can't feel, soothing you after you've reprimanded yourself for the 100th time for not being a good enough parent.  She is the one waking you with a kiss in the morning through your children who never noticed that Christmas wasn't anything to "pin" about this year.  She is the one teaching you to be a parent constantly by being like a parent to you in showing us her unconditional love. 

Take one day of this year and celebrate the fresh start of God's unconditional love with water and light.  Light candles at dinner, or simply turn the lights on and be thankful that you can do so.  If your children are little, give them a bath, or chat with them while they are in the tub if they like to do so.  Go to a waterpark together as a family, or just turn on the sprinkler in the front yard if it is summer.  When you do these things, remember to start over. 

If you've been struggling with an overly-curious 1 year old, an argumentative 4 year old, a withdrawn 8 year old or an unpredictable teenager, use this moment to start fresh.  They will sense it in you.  If you have sponsored people and forgotten to send that baptism card in the mail every year or whatever you imagined yourself doing, start fresh.  Don't even wait for their baptism, contact them now to let them know you're thinking of them.  Take them out for frozen yogurt or send them an awesome book you love or just send them a letter or email. Use your language that you are comfortable using to tell them "I love you and I am thinking about you".

You can roll all these baptisms you want to remember into one day if you want.  Make it Baptism Day.  I recommend a day in the summer where you can work sprinklers or watering the garden into it, but you can also tour Christmas lights in your neighborhood or use your traditional Advent candles instead of lighting the one 'official' candle (one of my kids' candles is broken) that lies somewhere in a box at home.  Get out and experience the starting over-ness that God has planned for you.  Renew those relationships and renew yourself.  You are not the you of yesterday.  Start over.

Starting fresh: I can get on board with that.