In The Beginning There Was Goodness
Help us change the world for all children. Help us.
Welcome to the Mothering Spirit newsletter! Each Saturday morning, you’ll receive a round-up of the week’s posts—perfect for your weekend reading.
This week on Mothering Spirit
As coach of her son’s team, Claire McKeever-Burgett spins a delightful story of basketball, Dr. Becky at Good Inside, and the Book of Genesis:
"Before we succeeded or achieved, before we learned how to dribble or make a shot, before we did anything, we were good...This, of course, is what Dr. Becky proclaims from a psychological and systems perspective in regards to parenting, and it’s what I want to proclaim as a theological framework for parenting (and human-ing), as well.
If we start with the understanding that we are good, then we’re less likely to berate ourselves (and our kids) over every little thing that feels awry."
Read the essay here: Joy Shows Her Finest: Lessons on Goodness from the Basketball Court and Beyond.
After this week’s school shooting in Nashville, we couldn’t keep silent.
Here is A Prayer for A School Shooting:
Let us not choose silence or stillness, denial or despair.
Not when the world is burning around us.
Not when our children are dying
Where they should be safe.Call each of us, in our own way—
Parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle,
Godmother or godfather, neighbor or friend—
To fight for change,
To work for peace,
To build your kingdom…Help us change the world for all children.
Help us change the world for all.
Help us change the world.
Help us change.
Help us.
Help.
Read and share the whole prayer here.
Today's parents in the United States are regularly confronted with the horror of yet another school shooting. Each time this happens, we feel angry and anguished, grieving the tragedy and overwhelmed by what this means for our own children. Our faith compels us to cry out against violence and evil. God promises to hear our lament, calling us to work for justice. Yet we grow weary with grief upon grief.
When we are tempted to despair at the state of the world or our own helplessness, here are four small steps we can take to do something in the face of gun violence in schools: pray, talk, act, and give. Learn more here.
A final word for reflection
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, this reflection on finding peace in the chaos might be just the ordinary reminder you need:
“Somewhere between the trend to accumulate (more and more, bigger and better) and the trend to purge (less and less, sparser and lighter), there emerges a third way: finding peace in the chaos. The way that says we do not need more; we need to care for what we have.
The way that accepts how a life lived with people will always be full—of clutter and conflict, yes, but also comfort and companionship. The way that knows if cleanliness stands next to godliness, then messiness shrugs and smiles to take its place on the other side. God in the middle. All the rest, all around.
Because God is not found only in peace, quiet, polished, decluttered, 10 easy steps to simplify. God is also found in mess, chaos, muddle, question, oh help me everything is a disaster.
God is not confined to clean, sparse monastic cells. If God is present everywhere and always, then God is also present in a life lived in places, with things, among people.
This is another Way.”
Read the whole piece on peace at There Is Another Way.
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