So, when our church recently re-launched our Wednesday night programming, we decided to use that time to begin a Family Faith Formation event where families come together and engage around the ideas of "filling our toolbox" with tools to grow in faith and love with each other. Our family has been joining with other families on Wednesday nights to have some fun together and spend some time intentionally in God's Word and growing spiritually together. It's loud. It's messy. It's basically like all of our living rooms squashed into our elementary room. It's family life in all its glory and its not-so glory.
I had my concerns about how effective these nights would be. Would the kids be too distracting? Would the parents appreciate the tools and resources or would they be too focused on their kids' behavior to absorb anything? Would the kids be able to gain from the experience or would they just come and go because Mom and Dad made them? Could an event that ranged in age from 1-ahem, older than that, actually lead to Family. Faith. Formation?
My answer came in the form of a scarecrow. Yup, a scarecrow. And not even a very attractive scarecrow. A rather unattractive scarecrow with a paper face and grass hands.
Yesterday, I was busy cooking some meals for some new moms and asked Hannah if she would please take Caleb to the playground. This was the equivalent of me asking her to scale Mt. Everest, or so I assume from her reaction. I told her it would be really helpful for me if she could just please keep him occupied until I got the meals done. Grudgingly I heard her call out, "Caaaa-lllllllleeeebbb!!!" as she slunk out the door.
Grateful, I returned to my task (happily because you all know I love the therapy of the kitchen). Next think I know Caleb comes running into the house yelling something about clothes and crows. Okay, he's happy, I'm happy. Then Hannah walks by with marshmallow roasters and a cornucopia filled with fake grapes. Whatever, she's happy, I'm happy. A small crowd of children started gathering out side of my home collecting sticks and grass. I'm hearing talk of paper faces and stronger sticks. Finally, my cooking done, I head outside to find this little man.
What in the world does this have to do with Family Faith Formation? Simply this. I walked over to see what they had done and Hannah smiled broadly at me as I looked at her and said, "You pursued peace." She nodded and began to explain quickly all the attributes of the little scarecrow eerily similar to my son in height and fashion.
You see the night before, we studied Psalm 34:14, "Turn away from evil. Seek peace and pursue it." We talked about how peace wasn't something that always came naturally. Hannah in fact pointed out that you had to chase it, choose it, and sometimes make it be. That day, she had to choose peace. She had to choose to "be" in that moment with Caleb rather than just grudgingly submit to Mom's request. She pursued peace. She made a scarecrow. The result? Happy mom, happy boy, happy Hannah, happy neighborhood kids, happy friends walking by smiling at our "scarecrow", happy memories... peace in our home.
Family. Faith. Formation. It all came together quite nicely in the image of a scarecrow. Take the time to talk about your faith with your kids. Our conversation lasted a moment. The impact will last a lifetime.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
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