children
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No more Santa, but that’s okay
My ten year old daughter found out about Santa. It was somewhat anticlimactic, actually. We have a podcast about the intersection between religion and video games, and we had a rabbi as a guest. The rabbi was telling us how… Continue reading
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Why form a youth group?
My church has the exciting opportunity in that we get to form a youth group for middle schoolers. We have just three or four middle schoolers, aged 10 to 12, so it would be small, but small things at church… Continue reading
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The human stories of Scripture
“Foxes have their dens, and birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” How lonely must Jesus have been to have said this. Or should we read it theologically, as… Continue reading
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Storytelling, Children, and Spirituality
As I raise my children, especially as I raise them spiritually, I’m surprised at how much time I spend telling stories. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, I feel, because Christianity (my faith) is fundamentally a storytelling religion. Some… Continue reading
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Asking children questions about God
The other day, I asked my daughters if they had any tough questions about God. I was doing this to help me brainstorm questions for our “Coffee and Theology” group at church. This group meets every two weeks or so,… Continue reading
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Children and Lenten Practices
This year, I played around with the idea of asking my two girls to take part in Lent. Specifically, I wondered if I should ask them to take on some sort of lenten discipline. In part, I’d like them to… Continue reading
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What does it feel like to pray?
the pictures included in this week’s post are from my wife and my trip to Japan in the summer of 2024 In my post last week, I wrote a little about the experience of what it feels like to pray.… Continue reading
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Both kids and spirituality (not ‘or’!)
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog. My last post was in November! I had planned on keeping up this blog every week, posting something each Thursday. But things get in the way, especially when you’re a… Continue reading
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Teaching Halloween and All Saints
When my daughter asked me “But what IS Halloween”, I realized that I had two choices. I could focus on the purely secular holiday, or I could focus on the religious aspect. I could do both, of course, but my… Continue reading
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Talking to a nine-year old (Part 2)
Two weeks ago, I posted about a little interview I did with my nine-year old daughter. I asked her questions about God, about following Jesus, and about what it’s like for her to be in church and in worship. Here… Continue reading
Incense and Crayons 