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.

Take up your mat and walk

Today a brought a bright pink yoga mat in my box. We talked about different kinds of mats, and that when Jesus was alive many people slept on a mat which they would roll out at night and roll up in the morning. I then reminded the children of the story about Peter and John, who when going into the temple to pray, were asked by a lame man sitting outside the temple gate for some money. They instructed him in the name of Jesus Christ to rise up and walk , and this man who had spent his whole life on the ground got up, praising God as he went.

The Bible is full of stories of God making the impossible, possible. It is full of broken, imperfect people who are very surprised to be called by God to perform amazing acts in God's name. What are you called to do? What is keeping you on the ground? How can we teach our children to listen for that call of God to rise up and walk, praising God all the way.

Weighty Matters

My box was very heavy this morning, as it had a large dumbbell in it. I try to make exercise part of my daily routine. I am not at all a morning person, but I know that if I force myself out of bed and into the gym before going to work, my day just turns out better. And once you are in the habit of daily exercise, you do miss it on the days you skip.

Just as we model healthful behavior and exercise for our children, we should also be modeling regular prayer habits. Setting aside time to spend with God in prayer should be part of our daily routine. It allows us time to share our hopes and fears, the joy and sadness in our lives. And just as any physical exercise, such as running, yoga, tennis, gets easier the more we do it, so does prayer. The more we practice being still in God's presence and sharing our hearts with God, the more natural this time becomes. Perhaps our new mantra for prayer should be. . . Just do it.

Doubting Thomas

Today I had a picture of my three sons in my box. The picture was taken during Easter three years ago, when I was pregnant with our fourth child. Everyone wanted us to find out what the baby was going to be (we didn't) and most of my friends were confident we were going to have a girl. I was convinced we were having another boy, and at one point I said that the only time I would believe we were having a girl is when I had a baby in my arms. When she was finally born my husband exclaimed, "It's a girl" and then had to laughingly say to me "look, it really is a girl". I had to see to believe.

Today we talked about Thomas, the friend of Jesus who had to see and feel the risen Lord to believe he had really come back. How wonderful the faith of our children is. They accept and believe that Jesus is with them, filling their hearts with love. They don't need visual proof. They don't need theological arguments, or historical facts. They just know. Spend some time with your child talking about God, and allow your faith, even if only for a brief time, to become childlike.

Ski Goggles

It is the first Wednesday after Easter, and the first week back after spring break and the children were very excited today. Everyone thought my box had an Easter basket, or eggs, or maybe candy in it. They were very confused when I brought out a pair of goggles.

I spoke with the children about how when you are somewhere where there is a lot of snow, the bright sun and the white snow make it very hard to see things clearly. Sometimes you might look right at something or someone and not really see what or who they are. After Jesus was raised, we don't think there was lots of snow on the ground, but we do know that for whatever reason even those who loved him had a hard time seeing him. It's as if all his friends needed special goggles to allow them to see what was right in front of them.

We need to remember that we should always be looking for Jesus. Sometimes he might be hiding in someone who is sad, or someone who is sick, or someone who needs help. Look for Jesus this week, and see how many times you find him.