Welcome to Virtual Pray and Play!

Welcome to Virtual Pray and Play! I want to begin by a humble request for everyone's understanding and patience. I am a relatively new mother; really, I'm discovering, every day of motherhood is new. My daughter Sophie is nearly 3 ½ years old and I am still working out routines and schedules, figuring out what works and what does not, and desparately struggling to break habits that, while not particularly bad for a single or even married person, are not particularly conducive to parenthood. I'm starting this blog more to receive advice than to give it. At the same time, I do occasionally have insights about children and faith that I feel called to share, and like all of us, I have a unique faith journey that began in my own childhood and continues to make me who I am. So I have much to share, and much to learn.

In my next post, I will talk more about my particular faith journey and how the perspective I've gained from it sets helps me set my goals for raising my own daughter and any future children I might be blessed to have. For now, I want to begin by welcoming you all to this virtual community of faith and expressing my intentions for it.

I intend for this to be a blog for all parents, guardians, role models or anyone charged with the awesome, terrifying and joyful responsibility of caring for children, or anyone who has done so in the past or considers doing so in the future, written from a perspective of faith. Specifically, it is written from the perspective of my own Christian faith, but I eagerly welcome and in fact ask for people of other faiths to share responses, joys, concerns, and perspectives and to be part of this community that I hope to facilitate through this blog. I believe we are all children of the same loving God, and we all hope to raise our own children to recognize this essential truth, which is the beginning of living up to the divine image implanted in all of us. I want this to be a place of mutual support where we encourage each other, pray for each other, and share our successes and failures in a safe environment free from envy or shame. I pray that this will be a place where insights and reflections can be shared openly, where differences and disagreements can be argued respectfully, and where we can all learn from one-another as we share the challenges of bringing up the next generation of God's people.

For readers in the Sunnyside area with young children, this blog, this “virtual community,” is intended to be supplemented by a real, “in the flesh” community. In truth, this blog is intended to be the supplement for the real community of parents and children meeting at All Saints' Church from 10:05 to 10:50 on Wednesday mornings. “Real Live” Pray and Play will be a time for children and parents to gather to share worship and fellowship. We will begin with a prayer and a brief “hymn” or praise song (and possibly dance!), and then the children will be invited to play together while the parents share joys and concerns about raising children from a faith perspective. For the kids, there will be coloring pages based on Bible stories or other stories with faith themes (sometimes created by myself, other times printed from websites that offer free religious education materials), in addition to other toys such as blocks and people/animal figurines. Depending on the age and attention span of the children, I may also offer a short Bible story, but if the majority of children are under the age of 3 this may not be feasible. For parents, this will be a time to share stories, questions, and insights related to raising children toward the fulfillment of their God-given potential. No topic is too mundane or profound. We can talk about anything from food and bed-time schedules to how to handle violence in the Bible to how to balance being grounded in one's own tradition with respect for others. Often times, this blog will be a launching pad for conversation, but any topic related to children and faith is welcome. (“Real-live” pray and play will be limited to 8 children as space in the church is limited, and parents/guardians are responsible for the the supervision of their own children. If you are interested in joining, please e-mail me to see if there is space available.)

My perspective as a Trinitarian, a pacifist, and a social justice advocate (I hesitate to use the term “liberal” or even “progressive” because I do not necessarily identify with a political party platform, even though I believe being politcally informed is a civic responsibility) will inevitably inform the perspective you will see in this blog. However, I welcome other beliefs, viewpoints, and perspectives as long as they are expressed respectfully. My hope is that everyone who comments and engages in conversation here will assume the good faith of one-another; that is, even when disagreements are strong, I hope we can all respect the fact that everyone is sharing from his or her best understanding of scripture, reason, and experience and sincerely trying to help one-another. When talking about issues as sensitive as faith perspectives and raising children, it is probably inevitable that emotions may run very high. If any conversation gets very heated, misunderstandings occur, and feelings are hurt, I will remind people that this is meant to be a community of love and support, and encourage any heated debates to be moved to email or another format.

I will try to update this blog at least once a week (at least every Friday); hopefully more frequently. My original intention, some may recall, was to start this blog a long time ago, but my summer schedule was simply not conducive to that. Now that my daughter is spending longer hours in preschool, I have more time to reflect, blog, and journal, and I want to make this blog a regular part of my routine. But I intend for this blog to be a conversation and so I really, really hope that you will share your thoughts, concerns, questions and insights. That said, most of the time I am more of a “lurker” than a participant. I read far more often than I comment. I welcome anyone who reads this blog to ponder the posts in your heart and mind and not feel obligated or pressured to comment, or to send me private e-mail comments if you do not wish to share a comment with the whole virtual world!

Dear God, please make this virtual community a safe and loving place of mutual support, help, and encouragement, as we strive to raise our children to love you and one-another. Amen.