"Am I doing this Christian parenting thing right?"

Help us build a list of book recs - and check out practical tips for kids' tough questions

This week on Mothering Spirit

Stephanie Cherpak Clary shares an honest reflection on how to share faith with kids when you’re facing your own questions and uncertainties:

“I lay there for a while in the dark, wondering how the mom with a master’s degree in systematic theology and a job as an editor at a Catholic newspaper managed to make it five years without her child learning about the cross. 

I recall the time a year ago when he told me to donate all of the Jesus books because they were ‘boring.’ That hit my Catholic theologian/journalist mama heart hard. I simply replied, ‘I think we’ll keep those ones. You might decide you like them someday.’

Then again, I guess he also might not. I want that to be his choice, not something I impose upon him, not something he includes in his life because he’s afraid of what will happen if he doesn’t.

Am I doing this Christian parenting thing right? Am I adequately adhering to the promise I made during my wedding vows ‘to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?’

I have to admit this is a question I ask myself often.”

Read the whole essay: Am I Doing This Right? Crosses, Questions, and Awe in Creation.

For more on faith & doubt

“My own beliefs still feel very much ‘under construction’…Without any framework for what it means to grow up with an active spiritual life, I routinely find myself second guessing how I should guide my kids along their own journeys with God.” (Passing On Faith, Living With Doubt)

Check out these 3 practical tips when you’re wrestling with faith. We especially love these responses to kids’ tough questions:

Affirm that the child brings their own wisdom, and find out more about what prompts their question: That’s a great question. What do you think?

Look to trusted sources of wisdom. I wonder what [Scripture, the church, our pastor, the catechism, etc.] says about that. I wonder who else we might ask?

Normalize wonder, doubt, and uncertainty as parts of faith: I don’t know the answer either. But I know we can always bring our questions to God. 

Encourage ongoing conversation and prayer together: Let’s keep thinking and praying about that together. What would you want to ask God?

“I often struggle to believe that God’s kingdom is on its way or, as the Jesus Storybook Bible describes it, that ‘God is making the sad things come untrue.’ But I’m starting to believe that God intends us to be doulas to each other as we collectively grieve and rejoice, doubt and trust. Like the mother crying out in Micah 4, we are in this holy labor together. Maybe God gives us each other in times like these, not to whisper flat platitudes that provide no comfort, but to share in the burden of hope.” (Stina Kielsmeier-Cook on Reading Micah While The World Burns)

Prayers for you

This week’s essay mentions the Prayer of the Breastplate of Saint Patrick. Here’s a free download of this beautiful prayer from Be A Heart Design.

(Turns out that prayer is a perfect companion in childbirth, too.)

Meditate on this prayer for mental health as a mom from Jessica Mathisen.

Writing for Mothering Spirit

Feeling like a tortured poet lately? (Apologies; we couldn’t resist.) We welcome your own words as we share prayers from readers related to our weekly essays. Here are upcoming themes to consider:

• What communion means to you as a mother - due 4/24

• The toll that racism takes on your family - due 5/1

• Divorce, separation, and/or single parenting - due 5/8

Original prayers are accepted (previously published on social media, blog, or other personal site is fine). We’ll give you full credit/copyright and tag you on our social media when we publish. Send your prayers to newsletter@motheringspirit.com.

A quick question for you

What’s the best book you’ve read on faith in the past year—for yourself or with your children? We’d love to hear your recs of good reads for kids and grown-ups.

If you like what you read at Mothering Spirit, we’d love if you’d share our work with a friend who needs encouragement in parenting—or a place to pray in the midst of busy days. Thank you for supporting our writers by following us on Instagram or Facebook & supporting us on Patreon!