The Walk of Trust

 

2020 is nearly over, and many of us look to the next year for a fresh start and an end to current struggles. When we look at the facts about COVID and the time-table for the vaccination program, we realize that in this case, hope is little more than a symbol. 2020 may have brought the struggles, but 2021 will not allow us to leave them behind.

How do we muster up the trust to get through what lies ahead? How can we teach our children to trust when we are spent, and tired, and worried? How do we cling to the sure hope of the resurrection when the trials and tribulations of everyday life crowd into our hearts?

Contrary to the secular notion of trust, the trust of faith is not a partnership. It is not a give and take between God and us. It is not true that if we trust, He will provide, but if we let our level of trust slip, His strength will fade away. Trust does not depend on us; it comes from God.

Trust is not a partnership; it is a surrender.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Look at the about-face in this verse. First, we are told to trust in God completely. Then we are told to lean not on our own efforts. This is surrender. Allowing our hearts to fill with faith does not leave room for our participation. We cannot do, or know, or be something that will make trust more effective.

So, how do we teach this to our children? We surrender by walking the walk. We let our children see our God-given trust even when we do not quite feel it. We do not have to understand. We simply obey.

These verses from Colossians are bringing me comfort today. Look for one particular repeated word.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3: 15-17

Be thankful – with thankfulness – giving thanks. And scattered in-between, we find other ways to walk the walk – teaching, singing, loving. 

Trust always comes from God. We cannot manufacture it with our strength or in routines. However, when we walk the walk, when we do the things that remind us of God's power, His plan, His love, then we can surrender to His trust.

Consider some of the following ways to walk in trust:

Thank

Thankfulness reminds us why we can trust because it points our brains in a positive direction showing us what is good in the midst of what frustrates us. Find ways to make lists of the blessings in your lives – big and small. It is okay to connect these blessings to the recognition of struggles. We do not need to ignore negative emotions to be thankful. Pairing the good with the bad is a reminder of how God is always with us.

Pray

Prayer is a perfect way to connect thankfulness to confessions of frustration. Make a point of creating family time for prayer, praying together as a group, or praying with your children one-by-one. Does it help to put your prayer in writing or does it work better to pray from the heart? Could you turn your discussion into a prayer? Or perhaps create a two-column list of items that inspire thanks and those that represent needs.Prayer is not about perfect words - it is about connection.

Walk

Walking in nature is a great way to be thankful and quietly present with God. Discussion is good, but so is a quiet time for prayer. As you walk, breathe out the frustrations and concerns and breathe in trust.

Serve

Thankfulness, trust, and service to others seem to be closely connected in our brains. When we serve others, we remember how God cares for us. Look to your neighbors to find a small act of service. Is there a local charity that would benefit from volunteer work? Can technology help you to connect to someone who is lonely? An anonymous act of "paying it forward" can fill the heart with delight.

Play

What brings joy to your family? Find some simple activities that create good memories of this time. Reading together, playing board games, physical activities, baking, or creating something through music or art are worthy possibilities for finding family joy.

God's trust is with us and is as strong as His promise. When we work to clear our crowded minds of our own understanding, we free ourselves to feel the trust He gives us. Teaching your children to do this will be a blessing that will work in their favor long past 2020. 

May you feel God's trust and find His peace.

Facing the Next Wave of Covid Family Life

 

When Covid hit, and children came home for remote learning, we all found our inner hero and rose to the occasion.  We looked for the good in the situation, joked about working in pajamas, and turned a room in our house into a family work center. Psychologist Ann Masten says we went to our surge capacity to survive a new crisis.  A surge capacity is a collection of skills (emotional, mental, and physical) that come over us in a wavelike sweep allowing us to cope. Our surge capacity helps us use our inner resilience. In this state, we get creative about problem-solving; we activate our ability to find gratitude and the strength to ignore difficulty. God gave us this capacity to get us through a difficult time.

Our challenge now is that the difficult time has become a chronic situation. Add to that the summer is over, and we have new burdens. We have depleted our surge capacity, and the road ahead looks daunting.

We are tired. We are tired of adjusting, tired of creative problem-solving, tired of new covid news – even good news. When we feel depleted, this adds a whole new level of anxiety to our thinking. We ask ourselves, "How are we going to manage?" and for the first time, we have no idea.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

After the reminder of God's grace, I note in this verse that I am not the only one to feel depleted. The psalm writer gets what we are going through, and God tells us He has a plan to address our needs. I urge you to read the entire psalm and notice how the emotions gravitate from one extreme to the other: crying to gratitude, hunger to blessing, affliction to delivery, and peace. Covid might be a new virus, but what we are going through is not new.

What are the tools God gives us to repair our crushed spirit? How do we replenish our surge capacity?

Forgive: Admit that you are not a superhero and accept God's forgiveness for your mistakes. Teach your family to be easier in forgiving each other. Challenging times demand we develop our grace muscles.

Grieve: As a family, list the activities and routines you miss. Write or draw about the things you discuss and put them in a box with the assurance that you will retrieve them. Save the box as a covid time capsule and remind yourselves the box will be opened some day.

Breathe: While taking time to practice deep breathing will help replenish our surge capacity, it is equally healthy to do to your breathing outside in the sunshine. Playing outside will reinforce the idea that there are still good things to be experienced. When we are outside, we relieve anxiety and revitalize the parts of our brain that help us to focus.

Create: At this point, it is hard to imagine we will ever forget this year, but so much of what we are learning will be lost as we work to survive. Take time to document your family's life in photos, stories, songs, and favorite survival Bible verses. This activity will replenish your surge capacity for the short term and provide you with memories to give you courage in the long term.

Help: Look for ways to help others because, in addition to the apparent benefit, it also restores a sense of control and reduces anxiety. Helping others is an excellent coping strategy to teach your children.

Study: It is always a challenge to find time to study God's word as a family. I recommend diving into the Psalms. Highlight a verse or two and talk about how it applies to your family.

Oddly, the best thing you and your family can say is, "We can't take it anymore!"

At this point, the point of giving up control is when we can trust in our loving Father.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

 

Weary Joy: The Caregiver's Journey

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Pandemic Peace for Families

 

Who knew 2020 was going to expect so much from families? We’ve had school at home, online church, sports cancellations, staycations, and now challenging choices regarding returning to school. While we find a ray of sunshine in the realization that the current pandemic does not seem to be hard on children in terms of health, at the same time, we realize that the emotional health of families has taken a beating. Many of the things that help us to weather stressful times have been shut down or made more complicated.

 

Situations such as these are where resilience is forged. When our children experience little to no struggle, they have little opportunity to develop coping skills. This is the time to learn confidence in the ability to conquer disappointment and obstacles. However, when a family is weary of restrictions, guidelines, and stressful decisions, it is discouraging to add the already long lists of tasks the one of building resilience.

 

Coping with stress and building resilience are two things we cannot teach our children outside of a situation where they are needed. The brain learns these skills when the times call for them. This current time calls quite loudly for the need for resilience.

 

It would be great if I could write a post outlining the ten best ways to build resilience. If this list existed, and it was true, then our work as parents would be easy. However, we can’t merely teach resilience. Instead, we nurture it through family time and family values.

 

In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Isaiah 30: 15

 

The times we live in now require strength and trust, but they also urge us to try to take control. As we work through decisions, we feel our sense of peace diminish. We do not find peace in our strength. We find it in faith and family fellowship. By repenting our need to solve the world’s problems and returning to the trust God gives us, we begin to create an environment that not only offers peace but builds resilience.

 

A family that nurtures peace and resilience will:

 

Focus on what God asks us to do rather than on what the situation demands. The pandemic is in God’s hands. Through science and expertise, God has given us things we can do. Once we have instituted these practices, we leave the rest to God. In doing this, we change our parenting goal from the need to make every decision right and instead put our trust in God. If we ignore the clutter screaming at us from social media, we can better discern God’s plan.

 

Be diligent about worship. Whether online or in-person, attending church feels different, but it is still God’s word. It still feeds our faith and invites us to trust. Your best tool to nurture resilience is to also look for faith discussion opportunities at home. Daily devotions and nightly prayers are wonderful, but so are car ride talks and Gospel reassurances at times of struggle or discipline. During this challenging time, your faith dialogues will connect the concepts of faith and struggle as part of brain development. The discussion you have about trusting God, now, will become a coping strategy for future troubles.

 

Look for ways to come together as a family. Busyness and stress tend to pull us away from each other. We mistakenly believe that when we need rest, it means we need time away. However, we build resilience in fellowship. When family members are together, relationships grow. These experiences and relationships are how children learn to cope with stress and trouble. Look for ways your family can play together. Everything from board games to backyard dodgeball will provide small problems solved by togetherness as well as good memories. Little by little, children learn that God has given us each other as a source of help, comfort, and joy. Projects completed together will afford the same practice and add in the sense of accomplishment.

 

Value family discussion. Children learn so much when they listen to and participate in a family discussion. This is why research on family mealtime shows a link to academic achievement. Children develop language skills as well as learn the unspoken rules about communication and relationship building. Ask your children to share their joys and concerns. Share with them your strengths and weaknesses and create a safe place to talk and grow. These times are excellent opportunities to slip in your faith, showing your children how your faith shapes your understanding and your ability to cope.

 

We do not need to be perfect decision-makers to find peace. In fact, that is the least likely path to take you to peace. Find ways to rejoice with your family – in activity and in prayer. God’s peace will reign, and He will bring about good for your children.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 4-7

 

 

Weary Joy: The Caregiver's Journey

By Kim Marxhausen

Concordia Publishing House

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Raising Children Without Racism: Simultaneous Saint and Sinner

In the previous post, I talked about how our brains create categories for concepts (including people). The more examples each of these categories have, the more comfortable we are around people who look, talk, or behave differently. This is a crucial first step in preventing unintended racism in children.

Racism comes out of how we describe and understand people we have placed in a group different from our own. The problem is we see differences and use those differences to separate. There is no reason why we can’t teach children to see differences, to learn about differences, to honor differences, and to welcome differences into the group in which they see themselves. In other words, we should watch to be sure our children are not creating an “in” group and an “out” group. We want our children to find ways to include more people in their group.

  

The essential step is to teach children how to welcome others into their circle of friends is not to teach them to ignore differences. But to teach them how to find commonalities amidst the differences.

  

First, we recognize and teach that we are all sinners standing in need of a Savior. Second, we accept and teach that we are all made righteous through our Savior’s death and resurrection. As Christians, we do not divide into the “in” group (saints) and the “out” group (sinners.) We are simultaneously members of both groups.

I believe in/out-group formation happens in the light of two equally damaging situations:

I. Law without Grace

As a longtime teacher in Lutheran schools, I can attest that creating an in/out-group does not have skin color or ethnicity as a prerequisite. A room full of children who all look the same will find reasons for some people to be relegated to the “out” group. I saw children so designated because they were not wearing the right color shirt or sat in the wrong chair. The difference in this kind of “out” is that shirt color, or seats can be changed, whereas skin color and culture do not change. This latter kind of “out” groups are exquisitely damaging because they exert power and leave children feeling helpless to improve the situation.

Jane Elliott showed this in her Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise, where she convinced children with one eye color that their group was better than other children. The results were quick and quite disturbing. No one had to teach these children to hate. This was accomplished by using law without grace. She taught them unfair rules, modeled in/out behavior, and neglected to teach them how to love.

I have seen elite “in” groups form in classrooms where following rules and completing perfect schoolwork are the most important things. This creates a group of successful children who feel it is justified to look down on someone less successful. They begin to believe that they are good enough and smart enough to save themselves. They begin to fear their failures and instead direct that fear to those in the “out” group.

II. Grace without Law

Likewise, children who are rarely expected to face their sin or to atone for their actions will also create their own little happy “in” group. They do not see their sin and consequently are more aware of the sins of those around them. The people in the “in” group behave according to seeming unwritten rules, who like the same things, who dress in the same way, etc. These people must be good, and others must be bad. If you think your child has never believed they have no sin, stop into any early childhood classroom and ask for sinners to raise their hands. Then watch the children point to each other. All of those children have been disciplined, but their memory is fleeting, so they feel safer denying their sin.

Grace and Law Together

When we use grace and law together, we raise children who do not deny their sin, nor wallow helplessly in shame. We teach children to be accountable for their actions, to repent of their wrongs sincerely, and to care for others by working to atone for their sin. We show them it is safe to admit to mistakes because our mistakes will not put us permanently into the “sinner” group. Children who learn to understand their sin, apologize, and ask for forgiveness will also accept forgiveness. More importantly, they will be able to forgive themselves.

If I can’t forgive myself, then I will do anything to escape my sin. If I create a cozy “in” group that can follow a random set of rules, then I can fool myself into thinking I am good, and the sin I see belongs to others. The sin belongs to the “out” group. Once this happens, I have even more justification for staying away from this group.

The second blessing of learning repentance and forgiveness is that your child will also learn mercy and empathy. A child with empathy can imagine themselves in a fellow sinner’s shoes and is more likely to apply mercy and forgive. When children empathize with each other, when they understand that we are all saint and sinner, in need of and blessed by forgiveness, the “in” group fades away into a blessed family of God.

Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about the importance of an attitude of forgiveness. David Brooks explains it in this way: “Real forgiveness is rigorous. It balances accountability with mercy and compassion. The person with a forgiving attitude expects sin, empathizes with sin, and is slow to think him – or herself superior to the one who has done the sinning.” (Martin Luther King, Jr. Sermon circa 1948) (David Brooks, The Second Mountain ©2019)

Accountability without forgiveness and forgiveness without accountability; both teach children to be cruel. Their cruelty comes from trying to make sense of a world that does not balance law with grace.

When we help our children to understand the reality of sin and the joy of God’s mercy and grace, we are making the in/out-group phenomenon much less likely. We are also actively, and with the help of the Spirit, teaching our children to avoid racism.

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