Spiritual Care for Children and Adults
Book Reviews
Many of us at St. James are readers, and we also want to encourage reading in our children, grandchildren, and all members of the younger generations. But it can be a challenge to find thoughtful and inspiring books that relate to our faith lives.
FOR ADULTS
Making a Home for Faith:
Nurturing the Spiritual Life of your Children
by Elizabeth F. Caldwell
(Pilgrim Press)
How can our family observe the Sabbath, religious holidays, and rituals (big and small) in the home? When kids ask hard questions about religious beliefs or practices, how should I answer? We had our child baptized; now what? Churches often assume that parents know how to share their faith and values at a level that children can understand, but many of us need guidance on doing spiritual formation in the primary place it occurs—at home. This book is full of ideas. The 2007 edition is especially attentive to issues of religious diversity, whether in the wider world, or in the home of parents from different traditions. Caldwell includes an extensive list of print and internet resources for children, parents, and congregations.
FOR CHILDREN
In God’s Name
by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
After God has created everything on earth, all living things were given a name, but there was no name for God. So each person searched for God’s name. The farmer called God “Source of Life.” The warrior, tired of fighting, called God “Maker of peace,” and the slave who was freed called God “Redeemer.” This book is full of the many names and images for God—Healer, My Rock, Mother, Father, Ancient One, and Friend. But when the people begin to argue over which name is best, they can’t hear one another, and God isn’t listening either. Only when they see that God’s many names reflect all that God is, and no name is better than any other, can they all hear how these names lift up God…and God listens. This is a beautifully illustrated book that offers young children an abundance of visual images and words to name God
This I Believe
Some people have a "date" with their favorite TV show each week. For many years, the most important such “date” I had was a three minute slot alternating between mornings and afternoons on Mondays, when “This I Believe” would air on National Public Radio. Based on a 1950's radio series by the same name, the series gave voice to the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women--some famous, but most not. I’ve used those three minute essays in sermons and I’ve rushed to the website to read one I missed when my commute started late. When I taught confirmation a few years ago, the kids were each assigned to read an essay (I’d selected some good ones, mostly written by teens and young adults) and report back on it. Did they agree with the belief? Did they think it was a true or important belief? What were some of their own beliefs?
Sadly, the contemporary "This I Believe" series came to a close in April of 2009. But there are now two published collections of some of the best essays, This I Believe (2007)and This I Believe II (2008) (Jay Allison and Dan Gediman, ed.). The books are perfect of reading groups and faith-based groups. Some of the essays in the books (and many more available on the NPR website) were written by young people. While many of the deepest and most powerful insights and lessons come to us later in life, teenagers are often the most diligent and relentless searchers for truth, personal or otherwise. What are the truths and values that are good enough to last, they wonder, good enough to build my life on?
The authors of these essays believe in being cool to the pizza dude, and in always going to the funeral. They believe in resilience, community, forgiveness, love, and a little outrage. They believe in dancing, creativity, the potential for brutality in each one of us, and in semi-permanent hair dye. They believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, and that jazz is the sound of God laughing. If you have not read these books yet, I highly recommend them. I am on my second time around, and still, not sated.
