Lent

Lent is a time of spiritual reflection and correction. Certainly we should turn away from sin at all times in the year, but Lent gives us the official time to determine our spiritual needs and address them.  Some people need to stop doing something and others need to start doing something. It is a time of discipline and it comes around every year.

It seems there are two areas we can work on before God. Jesus tells us to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Lent is a perfect time to tackle a little spiritual growth in both areas. Loving God can take on the face of many spiritual practices, prayer, fasting, bible study, bible memorization, daily devotion to name only a few. These disciplines draw us closer to God and we enter into a loving relationship with Him as a result.

Children can be taught the discipline of loving God. Simple spiritual practices can be learned in the six weeks of Lent. If you don’t pray before meals, Lent would be a good time to start. Add a prayer before bed or before school. Lent is a time to learn to acknowledge our sins and repent of them. Children can learn to take responsibility for their sins and to ask for forgiveness. The memorization of simple prayers or scripture is a lovely spiritual discipline for Lent.

Learning to love your neighbor seems a little more difficult. Children need hands on, practical acts of love. Talk is fine, but means very little to children. Children’s stories are not about ideas, they are about events, often events of minuscule importance to adults, but events none the less.  Action is what sticks in their minds. Take action with your children. Make a practice of taking the neighbors emptied trash can up to the top of their drive on each trash day of Lent. Plant some rye grass in a little pot at the beginning of Lent and by Easter you will have a bright patch of grass to hide little eggs in and give away as a centerpiece.

Put your child in charge of clearing the dinner plates after each meal as a way to serve the family. Any child over the age of 3 years can do this, but I wouldn’t use the best china.  Since a 3 year old can do that, just think of what a 6 or 7 year old can do. Learning to serve the family is the first step in learning to serve all of God’s creation. Expressing thankfulness to others is a starting point. Ask your children to thanks the cafeteria ladies at school each day when they get their lunch. Thank the child or adult who helps them into the car at the after school car line.

Children will learn to love their neighbor only if they see it done by someone important to them. Parents and grandparents must model loving others, thanking others and forgiving others. We need to model loving God’s creation and respecting those we don’t like and don’t agree with if we want our children to do the same.

Explain to your children that it will make them a stronger person to learn to pray and to learn to work hard for others. Then, show them how to pray and how to work hard for others. Walk with them on the path that leads to the celebration of God’s love and hard work for us  - Easter.

Peace,
Michelle

Words

   The idea of words has been in the media in the past week or so. I have given it a lot of thought as well. The Bible is clear that our words have great power and consequences, yet we seem to use them so carelessly. I worry that our children are surrounded by words - on TV, the radio, the computer- that are too dramatic. Flowing through those ear buds is a river of vehement information, sentiment and emotion. It is as if we live in a world flooded with hyperbole. Everything is either the best or the worst; perfect or evil; to be loved or to be hated; to be taken terribly seriously or to be mocked.

   In both Matthew and Luke, Jesus tells us that what we say reflects the condition of our heart. ("Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:36 and Luke 6:45). As parents we need to listen to our children's speech. What children say about themselves and their world can provide insight into their souls. Souls we are shepherding. Their words can be a clue as to the needs of each child, be it to buoy up a sagging soul or to correct a lack of humility, patience or generosity.  We need to listen carefully and not just correct the words, but the condition of the heart the words reflect.

   We, as parents, are not excepted from governing our words as well. Cognitive psychology tells us that  what people hear profoundly impacts what they feel and their concept of themselves. I think children know intuitively that the words of their parents, teachers and friends reflect the feelings of the speaker's heart.  Small words can have an enduring impact on our children. I cringe when I hear, as I do regularly, parents saying negative things about their children in the hearing of the child. I have heard in the last week parents referring to their young child as a monster, a bulldozer, and trouble. (As in, "Here comes trouble.")  I hear parents referring to their children as lazy or stubborn and I see the reaction of the children. It is not good.

   Our words should be chosen carefully. Ephesians tells us to use our words to minister grace to the hearer. The gospel of Matthew tells us we will give an account for every idle word.  Choose what you say and what you and your children hear carefully; it has an eternal impact.

Peace in the new year,
Michelle