Week 20: Saved
How do you nurture faith in children if you don’t have all the answers, and aren’t sure that the religious answers you’ve been given are true? This is a question Jess Walters struggles with in his essay “Saved.” There is a lot here that I think will resonate with Unitarian Universalist parents.
After you listen, some questions for reflection…
- What spiritual paths have you explored, and how did becoming a parent impact your spiritual journey?
- If your child came to you one day and asked, “Am I saved?”, how would you respond?
- As an adult, Walters is delighted by his mother’s lie about his baptism. It made him feel loved. “This is one of the great things about children,” he writes, “orrthodoxy crumbles in their presence.” Have you found this to be true in your parenting?
- For us as Unitarian Universalists, salvation is what brings about healing and wholeness. For some people that’s God. For Walters, it’s his family. What saves you?
A poem I return to again and again that speaks to the question of what to tell and teach our children is “At the Smithville Methodist Church” by Stephen Dunn. Does this feel familiar? If not through sharing knowledge of evolution or photosynthesis, what in your family’s religious life helps your child(ren) know they are loved?
With you on the adventure,
Rev. Beth
