Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 24

The Parable of the Loving Father

Welcome to The Parable of the Loving Father, the story Jesus tells in Luke 15: 11-32. At FBC Greenville, we’ll share this lesson this Sunday, February 10.

I’ve always called this parable the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but I like that many others call it by this name, changing the focus from the sins of the son to the amazing forgiveness, grace, and love of the father.

What an important lesson to teach our children, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39!) The world is full of hurting people who need to hear this, don’t you think? Who hasn’t made mistakes and felt out of the circle– and who hasn’t also felt a tinge of resentment when someone not playing by the rules gets a free ride? (Or maybe that’s just me!)  Awareness of God’s grace is so important to our kids. It’s a perfect discussion topic for this week.

If you’re one of our Sunday school teachers at FBC Greenville, you will receive an email with the script included. Let me know if you didn’t get it or have trouble opening it and I’ll see if I can fix the problem. (If you’re at another church and would like to use the script, send me an email and I’m happy to send it to you. Or join this site and get this script and 9 others.)

The parable is in a gold box (after all, it’s a parable!) in your Sunday school rooms, ready for you.

Now, how can we help the children deepen their exploration and understanding of the story through their art response time? What ideas can serve as springboards for their own creativity in making a gift for God?

Starter Ideas for Art Response

(Called “Starter Ideas” because this isn’t your grandmother’s craft time. We hope to give the children germs of an idea and then let them take it where they want to take it! Children respond on a much deeper level when they contribute their own ideas to their responses.


1. Have a celebration feast, just like the father threw for the son, celebrating God’s special kind of love. The kids could decorate cookies–or here’s something corny… eat pigs in blankets–reminding them of the pigs the son took care of. You could eat at the end and spend the first few minutes making it really special, letting the children make have decorations for the table-like a tablecloth full of love messages to God. Candles on the table would be nice. And as you prepare, you could help the children remember what the feast is all about: honoring God, who loves us and welcomes us back to him, no matter what we do, no matter if we misbehave or if we stick so closely to the rules that we miss the whole point of love all together.

I’m glad to reimburse you for any supplies you need to buy. Just bring me a receipt (with only Sunday school purchases on it) and I’ll make sure you’re repaid quickly.

2. Put a small mirror in a craft store frame which each of the children can decorate, writing on it with Sharpies something like God loves me exactly like I am. Children could decorate the frame however they like, by gluing on sequins or foam shapes, by using glitter glue or whatever supplies you have on hand.

We have a few of these frames in the resource room. If you give me a call before noon on Thursday, I can let you know how many we have and put them in your room for you.

3. Children could make cards for Meals on Wheels and for our folks in the hospital or in nursing homes. I’d be glad to see that they get to those who need them.4. Some children might enjoy acting out the parable. If you can video it, send it to me and I’ll share it.5. Older children might be interested in taking a look at the much loved hymn Amazing Grace. They could illustrate it –or record themselves singing it. Let me know before Sunday if you need a recorder.6. I bet the children could be really creative if you ask them to make a valentine for God, however they want, however big or small, whether 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional (clay maybe?)

4. Why not make a door out of popsickle sticks, with the sign on it that says, “Welcome Home!” That’s a great reminder of the father who waits, ready to welcome home his son no matter what he’s done.

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest board on the parable, here.

Love, Becky

Knocking on My Own Door

Meet my old friend Marianne.

I found her at a flea market back when we lived in France and named her Marianne, after the beautiful woman you see all over France- on French stamps and as busts in town halls, reminding everyone of liberty and equality and fraternity. I planned to put her on our front door when we moved back to the states, but then our South Carolina house came with a perfectly good door knocker and I couldn’t find the right hardware anyway.

So as a joke I hung her door knocker self on a nail on the back of the front door, so if you want to answer the door or step outside, it looks like you should knock first before opening it. At the time, I thought this was hilarious. (I guess that’s what readjusting to American life with three kids in three different schools does to your brain.)

Poor Marianne. Now she just hangs out over my bathroom sink. Before I took the photo of her a few minutes ago, I caught myself wiping stray toothpaste off her face with a little spit on my finger, as if I were her mama. She’s fallen so far from her French life, haha.

But I’ve thought of her off and on all week after Monday morning, when I went around to all the Sunday school classrooms and read how the children answered the wondering questions from Sunday’s story. We always have a set of questions we ask to help the kids think through the story. The teachers write down their answers, which are so often beautiful and profound and wise. Then we share them in our closed group on facebook with the parents – with no names attached- so that the parents can enjoy them too. I don’t know if their parents enjoy them, but I sure do. Most weeks, at least one answer makes me think about the story in a new way.

Last Sunday we shared the story about Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. It’s a great way to help kids understand what kinds of things Jesus talked to people about- what he thought was important. If you haven’t read the sermon in a while, (Matthew 5-7) it’s pretty hefty and covers a lot of territory: how to be happy and blessed by God, generosity, how to pray, the commandments, worrying, and the Golden Rule, among other things.

“I wonder what part of the sermon you liked the best?” the teachers asked.

One of our first graders answered, “The door because when you open your door you let God’s light shine outside.”

Think about that.

See why it reminds me of Marianne, on the back side of my front door?

If I understand the child correctly, the child is imagining that God’s light is with her. She’s not on the opposite side of the door- she’s hanging out with God, inside! When she opens the door, God’s light can shine outside, on others, on the world.

CAN I TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS?

We all want our children to know God is with them, that God’s light is inside them, helping them be who God made them to be! I love that this child’s idea is that she is united with God in shining on the world.

“I wonder what part of the sermon was the most important?”

One of our children said, “The door is the most important. Knock on God’s door.”

He sounds pretty emphatic. And maybe he’s right. Maybe it all comes down to this. God loves you and wants to be part of your life. So knock on God’s door. And keep knocking.

God is already there, holding you, but maybe we humans need to knock.

Knock your whole life long!

When I see Marianne now, especially when I’m brushing my teeth, I’m hoping she’ll remind me of this wisdom.

Blessings to you!

 

 

Knocking on Doors

Meet my old friend Marianne.

I found her at a flea market back when we lived in France and named her Marianne, after the beautiful woman you see all over France- on French stamps and as busts in town halls, reminding everyone of liberty and equality and fraternity. I planned to put her on our front door when we moved back to the states, but then our South Carolina house came with a perfectly good door knocker and I couldn’t find the right hardware anyway.

So as a joke I hung her door knocker self on a nail on the back of the front door, so if you want to answer the door or step outside, it looks like you should knock first before opening it. At the time, I thought this was hilarious. (I guess that’s what readjusting to American life with three kids in three different schools does to your brain.)

Poor Marianne. Now she just hangs out over my bathroom sink. Before I took the photo of her a few minutes ago, I caught myself wiping stray toothpaste off her face with a little spit on my finger, as if I were her mama. She’s fallen so far from her French life, haha.

But I’ve thought of her off and on all week after Monday morning, when I went around to all the Sunday school classrooms and read how the children answered the wondering questions from Sunday’s story. We always have a set of questions we ask to help the kids think through the story. The teachers write down their answers, which are so often beautiful and profound and wise. Then we share them in our closed group on facebook with the parents – with no names attached- so that the parents can enjoy them too. I don’t know if their parents enjoy them, but I sure do. Most weeks, at least one answer makes me think about the story in a new way.

Last Sunday we shared the story about Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. It’s a great way to help kids understand what kinds of things Jesus talked to people about- what he thought was important. If you haven’t read the sermon in a while, (Matthew 5-7) it’s pretty hefty and covers a lot of territory: how to be happy and blessed by God, generosity, how to pray, the commandments, worrying, and the Golden Rule, among other things.

“I wonder what part of the sermon you liked the best?” the teachers asked.

One of our first graders answered, “The door because when you open your door you let God’s light shine outside.”

Think about that.

See why it reminds me of Marianne, on the back side of my front door?

If I understand the child correctly, the child is imagining that God’s light is with her. She’s not on the opposite side of the door- she’s hanging out with God, inside! When she opens the door, God’s light can shine outside, on others, on the world.

CAN I TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS?

We all want our children to know God is with them, that God’s light is inside them, helping them be who God made them to be! I love that this child’s idea is that she is united with God in shining on the world.

“I wonder what part of the sermon was the most important?”

One of our children said, “The door is the most important. Knock on God’s door.”

He sounds pretty emphatic. And maybe he’s right. Maybe it all comes down to this. God loves you and wants to be part of your life. So knock on God’s door. And keep knocking.

God is already there, holding you, but maybe we humans need to knock.

Knock your whole life long!

When I see Marianne now, especially when I’m brushing my teeth, I’m hoping she’ll remind me of this wisdom.

Blessings to you!

 

 

Jesus Visits Martha and Mary

Welcome to the lesson for February 3, Jesus Visits Martha and Mary, the story from Luke 10:38-42.

 I love this story because it does such a good job of raising questions about hospitality- hospitality that we try to practice  and the unique, radical hospitality of God.


Truth be told, I think I also love this scripture because I can really relate to Martha’s predicament. What kind of hospitality is important in our own lives? To what extent is it important? I find it interesting-and comforting- that Jesus doesn’t disapprove of Martha’s focused cleaning and cooking and all her caring for her guests. His response to her frustration of finding herself doing all the work (“Lord, make my sister help me!”) is to turn the focus to his own brand of hospitality to Mary.

As I know you know, children will need help understanding what the word hospitality means. Does God ask us to show hospitality to others? What about God’s form of hospitality to us?

Of course, one of the big questions this story raises is just who gets to receive God’s hospitality. You’ll want to remind the children that in Jesus’s time, rabbis did not allow women to sit at their feet and study the Torah, to listen and ask questions. Yet Jesus encourages it. Who would Jesus welcome to sit at his feet today, to act as a disciple? Are there people that some might choose to exclude? Children are so good at helping us broaden our circle!

(If you’re new to the blog and don’t have this story script, it’s one I’ve written and would be happy to share with you. You may join the mailing list and have all ten new scripts sent your way or email me for this individual script.)

Ideas to Get the Children Started for the Give a Gift to God Time

*Our creative time works best when the child feels ownership over his own work–that it comes from her ideas and is merely inspired by the ideas we share to get them started.

Here are some ideas from which they can springboard. I’m sure you can add even better ones. Please feel free to share in the comments.
1. Focus on Retelling the Story
*Each child could recreate a set of the Godly Play materials for themselves either 2 dimensionally, through drawing the pieces and cutting them out, or 3 dimensionally, with clay (bucket, plates, etc), clothespins (Jesus and the sisters) and other materials-a twig broom, etc.
* Make a mural of the story on butcher paper.

*Act out the story, either set in Bible times, or set in modern day. Let the children perform it for each other or another class. Children could play the roles of Jesus, Mary and Martha, and other children (who might be more shy) could be among of the 72 guests.

2. Focus on the theme of Who Would Jesus Want to Sit at His Feet?
I can imagine this being successful as an individual project (either a drawing or a collage from magazine pictures) or a class project, with each child picking what kind of person she would like to draw. Would Jesus want the poor, the rich? Different races? The old? The young? Families? Singles? Prisoners? Sick people? Well people? Lonely people? Happy? They could even draw themselves! In fact, I love that idea!

There is butcher paper in the hallway ready for a class to work on it together. (They could draw directly on the paper or on small sheets and then glue each person’s work to the larger paper.)

3. Focus on Hospitality Skills
*Some could prepare some kind of food as Martha did. Some could sweep and clean. Others could be Mary, listening to a teacher read a story. Afterwards, the group could talk about how it felt to play each role. Then the children could take a look at Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  This verse comes from Jesus’s desert experience (his quoting from Deuteronomy,) but it applies to this story as well. The children could write the verse in their own words and illustrate it with the Mary & Martha scene.

*We have a Love Luncheon with Senior Adults scheduled for Feb. 11, so one way our children could practice hospitality is to make decorations for the lunch!

 *Our second graders drew pictures of what each of us would do to entertain Jesus if he came to our house.

For more art response ideas to get the children started, see my Pinterest page here.

Enjoy the story!
Love, Becky

Big Questions at the Cafeteria

When I met one of my second grade friends for lunch at her school today, I knew we’d have a really fun time- and we sure did!

I figured we’d get to know each other better, that she’d introduce me to her friends and tell me all about her school, and we did all of that.  I learned that her daddy is a veteran, which means he used to be in the military, that her family likes to joke together, that she had a roller skating party for her birthday this year, and that when she grows up she might be a minister at a church or a teacher at a school or who knows what because she’s a little too young to have all that figured out. (I agreed. Wise girl.) I  learned that at her school, everybody LOVES Mr. Willie and Mr. Mike because they’re nice and funny and they do EVERYTHING around the school, cleaning up and fixing wise. And I learned that the second graders were working on their play before lunch and one girl threw up and another child thought he might faint because it was kind of hot in there.

I was delighted to learn all those things! Then, apparently, we were getting down to business.

“I’ve been thinking and I have a question,” she said, and munched on a veggie straw.

“Ask away,” I said.

“If Adam and Eve were the first people, does that mean we’re all related?”

“That’s an interesting thing to think about,” I said. “I wonder what you think about that.”

“I think we must be. I guess Adam and Eve would be my great great great great- well I guess I’d have to say great for hours before I could get to grandparents!”

We laughed and talked about how we’re all one big family on this earth, and then we moved on to something else.

But I’ve been thinking about my friend’s question and our Big Earth Family all afternoon.

Whether you believe Adam and Eve were two actual people or that God gave them to us in this beautiful poem, challenging us to think about God’s love for us, our separateness from and union with God, and our connection to each other and to creation, it’s a big thing to ponder. One that comes with some simple and powerful truths.

If we’re really one big family, we need to know what is going on with each other.

If we’re really one big family, we need to listen to each other and understand how our actions affect one another.

If we’re really one big family, our governments may need borders, but our caring can’t stop at the lines we draw.

That’s big stuff.

Today, before I left work (church) I snapped a photo of one of my favorite things outside our sanctuary right now.

Well, look at that. My instagram buddy, @TravelingBabyJesus jumped in the middle where the candle should go. What a rascal. But I guess it makes sense. He is the light of the world.

This is the candle holder we set out in the narthex when we’re hosts as part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Homeless families stay in our church building for one or two weeks at a time while the parents get back on their feet. As I think of our Big Earth Family, I see us holding onto each other so that we’re all standing up, homeless and those with homes, people near and people far. And Jesus lights our way, in the middle of it all!

So whenever I hear people clinging to their sides, yelling- not listening – and shrugging shoulders when asked to consider others, I’m going to try to focus on my friend’s big question and the image of that candle holder, the Big Earth Family playing Ring Around the Rosie, with Jesus in the middle. May the Light of the World be our guide!

Love, Becky

PS. My young friend’s mother gave me permission to share this with you, in case you’re wondering. Respecting privacy is important to me.

Rooted in God’s Love

This Children’s Sermon was written to accompany a sermon January 20, 2019, based on the scripture John 2:1-11, the story of Jesus turning wash water into wine for a wedding in Cana. The minister focused on our worth to God, just as we are. The series of sermons is called Rooted- how we are rooted in our faith, in our worth to God, etc. One of the goals of this Children’s Sermon was to help children think about what it means to be rooted in our faith.

Good morning, girls and boys. Do you know what I have to show you today? It’s a root from a cedar tree. When I was about in about 3rd grade, my dad, who is a scientist, took this out of a peat bog, where it had been preserved a long, long time. Other scientists estimated that it is about 10,000 years old, so it’s been around thousands of years before Jesus was even alive!

Before it was a mass of roots that my dad pulled out of a peat bog, it belonged to a tree. A cedar tree that looked like this.

If we were a tree, what would our roots do for us?    1) collect water and nutrients- to grow       2) Helps it stand tall and not fall over

I could ask you as a person- what roots you? How do you get your water and nutrients so you can grow?  And what helps you stand tall and not fall over? (Allow children to respond.)

Last week and for the next several weeks we’ll be talking about being ROOTED– in our faith, in our baptism, in all sorts of different ways. If I asked you, “What roots you in your faith?” that could mean, “What helps your love of God grow?” “What helps keep your love and belief in God, stand tall and not fall down?”

One thing that roots my faith is that I know how much God loves me and you and everyone on earth. The Bible says that God knows and loves each one of us, no matter what we do or don’t do. We’re important to God. When I have a bad day where I make wrong choices or hurt people’s feelings, I can ask their forgiveness and I can ask God’s forgiveness and I know God will give it. God will help me do better. This helps me grow and helps me stand tall. When you’re loved, you can make it through anything. We are loved. We’re rooted in LOVE.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for helping us grow our love for you. Thank you for helping us stand tall when hard things happen. We love you, God. Amen.

Jesus Gives the Sermon on the Mountain

Welcome to Jesus Gives the Sermon on the Mountain, the story for January 27 from Matthew 5-7.

I love this story because the sermon covers so much territory–and because Jesus’ words are so poetic and full of images which children can understand. I also like it because he clearly illustrates how different his ideas were. (His message on the ten commandments, for example, that obeying the commandments was not enough…that we’re called to do more than they ask.) And I like that teachers can focus in the expression time on whichever part of the sermon that interests individual children.How do I love this scripture as a story for children? Let me count the ways…

Do your kids want to work on learning/illustrating the Lord’s Prayer? Why not?  Are there children in your class that are captured by Jesus’ message about worrying? They can focus on that. Older children might be very intrigued by the upside down nature of the Beatitudes. Why not go to the Bible and really go through these together?

If you’re a Sunday school teacher at FBG and you haven’t received the story script in your email, let me know. If you’re interested in getting the script and you don’t attend FBG, I’m happy to share. The script is available free along with 9 others when you subscribe to this blog. You can unsubscribe at any time- no worries!

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

Welcome to Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man, our story for Jan. 20, based on Luke 5:17-26.

It was really fun to think about how to tell this story, how to create the house so that the friends could deliver their paralyzed friend to Jesus’s feet. It was also a pleasure to think about the lesson itself: what happened that day and what we can learn from it about faith, the power of Jesus, (and his ability to heal both wounds of the spirit and physical wounds) and what it means to be a Christian friend.

As you can see from the scripts, I’ve written the story in two versions: one for the younger children, which focuses on the healing itself and on friendship, and one for older children, which also includes the discussion after the healing between Jesus and the religious scholars. There is an added wondering question for the older children concerning this discussion as well.

As you tell the story, you will find enough Lincoln logs in your basket to build the house as shown below. I’m hoping to have enough donated so that you can be creative and build it how you like, but just in case you have to go with the blocks I’ve got, I’m sharing a pictorial guide to building it here.

If you like, as you build the house you could remind the children of last week’s story about Jesus calling Levi (Matthew),  that some of the most important work Jesus did was done while visiting people in their homes, listening to them, talking with them, teaching them, bringing them peace, and often healing them in different ways.

Once the house is built, you can begin the story.

The popsicle stick roof makes it easy to remove “tiles” so that the paralyzed man can be lowered. You may want to take off all of the tiles and part of a side wall so that everyone can see what is going on inside the house.  Or just demonstrate the lowering, and then tell the rest of the story on the green underlay.

If you’re teaching the older children, as you talk about Jesus’s discussion with the religious scholars, you will want to stress that people may have thought that sin was connected to illness in Bible times, but that this is untrue. Children sometimes mistakenly pick up only parts of a sentence, and the idea that illness has anything to do with sin is definitely one we don’t want them to get!

We can celebrate that there were actually two miracles shown by the story: that of healing the paralyzed man and that God empowered Jesus to heal the heart of the man, forgiving him of his sin. None of it would have happened if it hadn’t been for the man’s friends, who loved him enough to do whatever it took to get him to Jesus.

Gift – To – God Ideas

The story is probably enough to inspire the children to express it through their very own artistic gift to God, but just in case they need a little springboard, here are some ideas I hope will be helpful.

1. Let the children act/play out the story:

 *on the rug with the teaching materials (in a group of 2 or 3)

(Encourage them to retell the story to each other, not just build the house.) I hope to have enough extra Lincoln logs to add to those in the story basket. We’ll see.

*Pick characters and act it out. Bring a blanket and let them try to lift one person in the blanket (over the carpet, and not very high,:) )

2. Make parts of the story.

* Make a mat with fabric and Popsicle sticks and a man and his friends and Jesus from clothespins. Bring shoe boxes and let the kids make awhole set, with the house too. Can they make a set of stairs leading up to the roof? (See an example of something sort of like this here.

*Weave a mat as shown here. When the kids can use it at home as a placemat, it will remind of the story. All it takes is construction paper.

3. Make a collage about what it means to be a (Christian) friend. Cut out pictures from magazines that show people being friends to each other or draw pictures that show friendship in action. This could also be a great mural that the whole class works on together.

4. Make a Person-on-a-Mat snack.  Frost graham crackers with icing, and arrange stick pretzels and marshmallows to form the body of the person on the mat. Or you could use gingerbread men. (Who would turn down frosting?!)

5. Cards for others. We might not be able to heal others, but cards with pictures and friendly messages can help aid the healing. Offer kids the option of making get well cards for church members or shut ins.

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page here.

I hope you enjoy the story.

Love, Becky

Stranger Conversations

Something slightly wacko happened to me in the ladies’ room at the mall last Friday.

I had just exited my stall and was standing at the sink washing my hands when a lady looking into the mirror beside me said VERY LOUDLY, “Ain’t no way I’m gonna have another baby at 39 years old no matter what my man says!”

Uh, Okay.

There was no one else in the bathroom. She wasn’t wearing an earpiece and I didn’t see a phone. She was talking to me, it seemed. We didn’t know each other. The lady worked there in the food court, in a mall I’d never been to, in a city I’d never lived in.

But she seemed adamant so I nodded at her in agreement.

I guess the lady took this as encouragement. She had more to say.

“It was hard enough with the other two when I was young. At 21 that was hard enough! No, if he wants a baby, he can put a diaper on that hound dog he bought himself without asking me one word about it. He can carry it around and call that his baby. No sir, I just ain’t going to do it.”

“Makes sense to me,” I said.

She grinned at me and said, “Well now, aren’t you sweet! YOU JUST HAVE A BLESSED DAY!”

I left the bathroom, laughing to myself.

She was the second stranger who’d struck up a conversation with me that morning. As I walked through the cloud of Cinnabon butteriness and out of the food court, I remembered the lady stirring the eggs a few hours earlier at the hotel breakfast buffet.  When I asked her how she was doing, she had smiled and said, “I’m fine. Being at work is a rest, compared with home. We just got a puppy.”

“No wonder you’re tired!” I said.

She nodded. “He’s still little bitty so he keeps us up all night, whining for his mama. But I don’t mind. You got a dog?”

I told her all about Rosie and how she’d whimper until one night I finally got out of bed and gave her the sash of my fluffy pink bathrobe to drag around the kennel and snuggle until life was good again.

“Ours is a Jack Russell terrier. The kids named him Jackie. Not real original but what can you do?”

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

“Jack Russells can’t just eat any dog food, you know. They have to have a special diet. I’ve been reading on the internet all about it cause we want to keep him healthy. I just love learning new things like that, don’t you?”

“I do. It keeps life interesting.”

“EXACTLY!” she said. “I love to learn about all kinds of things. I believe that dog and I are going to be good for each other.”

As I walked down the mall, looking into the eyes of the people walking by, I wondered what it was about these random conversations that made me so happy. After all, I’m an introvert. Plus, I HATE the mall! I’d only gone there to bide my time while my road trip buddy was in interviews. I had planned to spend the day visiting the World’s Largest Coffee Pot and then touring around the park downtown, but the miserable pouring rain all nixed all that. The two antique stores I’d scoped out on the internet were closed, so there I was, walking through the mall. Surrounded by strangers with words to say.

Surprisingly, I ate it up!

Maybe I like talking to strangers because so often they shock me by being HILARIOUS and warm. Maybe I like talking to them because they keep life interesting! They keep me learning new things – and old things that I forget sometimes, as I’m grumbling about the state of the world. They remind me that people are fascinating, that everyone has a story, and that life feels richer when we share our lives with each other.

The last couple of weeks, as we prepared for and celebrated Epiphany, I heard a lot from my friends in ministry about “star words”- paper stars, each with a word printed on it. You take a star, read its word (like joy or trust or community or loyalty or prayer or tenderness, you get the idea), and let the word on it  guide you through the new year. I think this year I’m going to choose my own star word: connection.  It might be just right for this introvert, a reminder to come out of my rabbit hole a little more often, to pass up the World’s Biggest Coffee Pot or the park downtown for random conversations with some strangers or friends. You want to join me? It’s sure to keep life interesting!

Now YOU JUST HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Love, Becky

 

Many thanks to Matthew Montgomery for the use of his excellent flickr photo through Creative Commons.

Epiphany Sunday 2019

How I LOVE this book, Home by Another Way, by Barbara Brown Taylor! I’d been waiting months for Epiphany Sunday so I could share it in a children’s sermon, and it was worth the wait! Taylor has such a gift for helping us think outside the box about faith, and as usual, her words were moving and often funny and profound.

Since I only have about 6 minutes and I timed the reading of it to be a little more than 8 minutes, I flew through it, summarizing pages here and there. I wish I could have read every single word. It would definitely be worth the extra few minutes!

For this children’s sermon, I simply shared the book, and then prayed this prayer: Dear God, thank you for the tug you place in our hearts. Help us continue to draw close to you, again and again, as we go through each day of 2019. We love you, God. Amen.