Creating Lent & Easter Memories

Recently one of my professors from seminary, who is now retired and active in his own church, posted an idea for ministry with children on Facebook and offered to share with any who were interested. I remembered this professor as being incredibly loving and compassionate in his teachings and how he practiced his faith, plus, I was delighted to hear what he is now doing, so I responded that I’d be interested. He emailed me pamphlets and lesson plans for a Lenten Journey that he created for families with children to practice at home. (Now this is the same professor who struggled with an overhead projector and proclaimed, “I’m not very good with ‘modern’ technology.” So…that said, I don’t have what he intended to send in its entirety, but I have the gist of his ideas and I want to share them with you.)

Paraphrased thoughts from Dr. David W. Sharrard:

Advent and Christmas are memorable times for children and families because families invest time together, practice rituals together and they celebrate and pray together throughout this season. The secular world also supports this as a season for “family” time, which doesn’t hurt our efforts. Lent and Easter can also become seasons for memory-making for your family, as well.

Psychologists tell us that parents and caretakers are the most influential people shaping the minds of their children, followed by family, important groups such as school and church, and eventually peers. Parents, grandparents and adult leaders know the continual effort that is required on a long-term basis to help children grow and mature into adults.

The season of Lent in the Christian tradition is an opportunity to focus on one’s life and relationships with loved ones, neighbors and God. This is also a key objective for Christian education with children and young people. When children and infants are blessed in the church, their parents are asked if they accept the responsibility in nurturing the child in the faith and in the life of Christian community. The extended family and congregation are asked to support the child with prayers, witness and to promise to uphold and support the child to grow into the full stature of Christ.

Children value time with their parents and loved ones. Focused family time together will be long remembered. A few minutes together once, twice or more times per week for the six weeks of lent can be life-shaping experiences.  The world view that children develop comes from the values, expectations, rules of conduct, understanding of how things work in life and the ways in which meanings are attached to experiences. Children assimilate information through their life experiences into these worldviews and families are key players in how those world views will be shaped. World views will become the windows through which they will view life.

Spending intention family time in family meetings with scripture and conversations about life each week throughout Lent, with a different theme for each week, will help you teach children spiritual practices that can last a lifetime. 10-15 minutes may be all that’s needed to help your child and you develop spiritual disciplines and heightened experiences of God to use as a guide throughout life. These disciplines will become “habits of the heart.” Parents will lead these family ‘discussions’ and will model the behavior for each exercise practiced during these family meetings.

• Week 1—Share the story of Genesis 2:7. Discuss the gift of God’s breath in providing life for each of us, not just for Adam. Use language such as, “I am alive because God breathed life into me.” Now, begin to think of every breath as a blessing and then practice breathing exercises as you consider how many breaths we take each day/week/month/year. Then the parent will share each child’s birth story with them and what it was like to become a parent/or a parent again. Allow the child to question these experience stories and close with a prayer that includes the breath.
• Week 2—Share what the Bible says about compassion and love from 1 John 4:7. Reinforce the concept of breath and blessing from the previous week. As you focus on breath, ask each family member to think of a person they see as compassionate and loving. Have everyone close their eyes and visualize this person…then pray blessings upon that person for each breath…May they be happy…May they know peace…May they feel loved…May they be free from pain & suffering, etc. At the end, as each person to share who they thought of and the reasons why they see that person as loving/compassionate. Maybe do something nice for this person, like write them a note or draw a picture to send to them. Close with prayers and invite each family member to lift the name of their person in this time of prayer.
• Week 3—Week 6 & Holy Week—to be continued in next week’s newsletter article.

I hope this gives you some ideas about ways to make this Lenten season memorable for your family!

Blessings,
Tracy