I have started plenty... I even did one once in high school that was so strange my parents asked me to stop reading it (I can't find it on Goggle so I am hoping it is no longer in print). But sticking with a devotional is not my gift in life. Make each day an adventure... that I can do. I would never be great at factory work!
There are many parts of my upbrining that are beautiful... there are also parts I have had to unpack... Did you know Jesus was not white with blond hair? There were some animals that had more then 2 on the ark? King David was messed up! There are a whole lot more women in the Bible then you tend to hear talked about.
Some of that is a part of growing older and learning more details about a story... part of that is unlearning white American Church culture. Its something I have wrestled with as the girls have gotten older. I want them to have a relationship with Jesus. I want to help them in that with giving them as little baggage as possible in the journey. I know I can not prevent all baggage and that bubble wrapping them will create baggage, but it is something I think about.
We recently realized that while we have conversations with out kids about how they hear God, worship music is often playing, and in the car we listen to faith podcasts... they don't know a ton of the Bible stories. They know some higher level stuff... but they need the basics too.
So I bought a devotional and chose a time that things are about the same every day... their meds before going to bed. We are only a few days in... no prize for sticking with it this far... but tonight's pages made me stop and think.
Being a millennial there is also a lot of things that we were taught in school and church and on TV of what good people should look like. I know I am not the only millennial who feels very frustrated that the very people who often taught us those things as children now get mad at us for doing those things as adults. We all didn't just land here will a collective thought about a lot of things, we were taught, and the world can feel jarring when you are taught one thing yet those same people want you to act a different way. I don't think other generations get this but it is one mine really feels and so we think about it as we are teaching our kids.
I grew up singing Jesus Loves the Little Children... but growing up now a lot of those same people that I sang those songs with post raciest things on Facebook, only care about their own safety in relation to immigrants, care more about money then inclusion, praise a president who mocks people, don't care about the earth... it feels really disconnected (and you wonder why my generation is calling it all fake)... its like the 90s was full of this talk of the better way people are now... but no one really wanted to live that out... it was just kind words covering up the same garbage... its not everyone by any means, there are some amazing people out there, but society as a whole tends to follow this curve.
And I don't want my kids to have that same jarring experience. So I am thinking thought how we teach our kids things... because I want them to see that value in people. I want them to love their neighbor... and I want them to do it better then I do... because I see my shortcomings and I don't want those for them. I want them to expect that leaders have integrity and to also have grace for them as people (sometimes the kindest thing you can do for a leader is know when to get them off a pedestal).
Tonight the page was about God knowing what He was doing when He created each child. We could at a base level all agree on that theological view. It is not one that you are going to see a lot of Twitter fights about.
But if we are honest it is not one that we actually put into practice.
And reading those pages to two kids that many people would say they believe that statement about at surface level... but in one way or another dont... was really hard. It felt a bit like I was reading my kids a sugary cereal. But the reality is that it is true... whether people live like it or not.
God didn't mess up when he made my kids.
They are not tragic.
They are not less then.
Them doing or not doing things like most people does not define their goodness.
Their bodies doing things typically or not does not mean they have less value to God.
But they are going to be told this by the Church... to be honest there are people that already have... people who would agree with every word in that devotional tonight if you asked them but their hearts don't see my kids as valuable. They have been told this by people in public. They have been told this by how people do or don't interact with them or include them. This is just a fact of life for them.
But for me as their mom tonight reading that devotional felt heavy... but man my kids probably needed to hear that most. It is my job to help them have a firm foundation in that.
But we as a society and a church need to wrestle past the surface level and look at our hearts and our actions... towards everyone... and we need to keep doing it even when it is uncomfortable. Because speaking the right words with our mouth is meaningless without heart change... and eventually like my generation... people see behind the curtain eventually. And our fakeness hurts real people...
Real people made in the image of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment