Newsbrief: Growing Up

My son starts Kindergarten on Monday.

{Shakes head in disbelief. Takes a deep breath. Starts typing again.}

It happened so fast. It seems like just the other day I was holding my newborn son in his favorite pose (head nestled in my hand, the entirety of his body balanced easily on my forearm). Now he's a Kindergartener who is writing his own name, solving simple math problems in his head, and starting a whole new chapter in his life. It is a rite of passage and a rhythm in our world that I am getting to experience firsthand.

You see, it is that time of year again friends. When our young ones at our church head off to school again, and all of the teachers in our church head back too! It is a time of excitement and anxiety, of new beginnings and transitions.

As our kids (and our teachers!) head back to school let us continue to lift them up in our prayers that school might be a nurturing, safe, supportive environment. May it be the kind of place where they can explore and discover, learn to love learning, and enjoying growing into the very fullness of what God is calling them to be.

In fact, lets not just pray that for their schools. Lets offer that same prayer for our church too. That we can be a welcoming and loving place for children and young people to feel nurtured and safe and supported. May we at First Christian Church be the kind of place where our young people can explore and discover their faith, learn to love learning, and enjoy growing into the very fullness of what God is calling them to be.

I'm glad that we've found a terrific school for Henry (he'll be continuing at the Montessori Academy, a charter school just up the street from our church) and I'm profoundly happy that we've found a caring, supportive church home that will love him up as he continues to grow!

Thanks for praying for my son and for all the other youth in our church who are headed back to school in the days and weeks ahead.