Birthday Cake

Today was the last chapel before school gets out for summer and in my box I had a big silly hat shaped like a birthday cake with three candles on it. In our family we have a tradition of the birthday hat. Early on the morning of your birthday you are awakened by breakfast in bed, gifts in bed and the hat. You then get to eat breakfast and, of course, have your picture taken wearing a huge birthday hat. We started this tradition when our children were small and although the hat is looking slightly worse for wear, it continues.

All year long we have shared stories about our family in Christ and its traditions. One of the traditions we have as a people of faith is lighting candles during our services. Lighting a candle serves to remind us that God is with us, and in the chapel I do on Thursdays with our ELP II classes I remind them that even when we blow the candle out, we see the smoke from the candle swirling around us and remember that God is always with us. So I hope my silly hat with its three candles reminds our children that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always with us and in us, filling our hearts with love to be shared with the world.

Have a wonderful summer!

Baby Doll

Today I brought my daughter's baby doll in my box. Her name is "Cupcake" and my daughter plays with her all the time. She loves to sing quietly to Cupcake, and rock her, and put her to bed. Sometimes she pushes her around in a stroller, or takes her clothes off and on. Most of the time my not-so-gentle daughter is very gentle with her doll. Playing with Cupcake allows her to practice being gentle and loving so that when she is around a real baby she knows how to act. And when she does drag her doll around upside down, it allows us to remind her that "We are gentle with babies" and show her how to hold her doll more carefully.

It can be very difficult to teach something like gentleness to children without a model of what gentleness looks like. It must have been very frustrating for God to try and teach us about love. God tried talking to chosen leaders and prophets so that they could explain it to us. But it was only by sending us a model of love in Jesus Christ, that we finally understood. Jesus was able to show us how to love one another and ourselves. Now it is up to us to practice the lesson.

Mother's Chapel

Today was Mother's Chapel at St. Mark's and it was wonderful having so many mothers and special friends join us for worship. In my box I had a clock. It was an old Fischer-Price red wind up clock where as the face goes around it shows different daily activities and plays music. This was one of my favorite things as a child. I loved watching the hands go around and looking at the children on it as they woke up, ate, brushed teeth, played, and went to bed. I am reminded of that clock whenever I am at the kitchen sink at my husband's parents' house, where a card reads, "a mother's day is from son up to son down".

If you can find it, Madeleine L'Engle has written a wonderful book for children entitled, Every Day Prayers. In it there are prayers for all the ordinary daily activities of childhood, morning, leaving the house, drawing, playing, mealtime, being scolded, bath time, etc. Each prayer is a simple reminder to praise God in all things. As mothers, our days can often seem consumed with ordinary activities. For mothers (like me) who work outside the home, squeezing in the daily routine of caring for children can become exhausting. This week, try and take the space to honor each task, whether making lunches, doing laundry or simply kissing a child good night, and look for the holy in all the hours of your day.