The Back Page: Was that God?

Children spend plenty of time in their family so it makes sense that the spiritual nurture and identity offered by the family would impact the quality of that child’s faith formation. Similarly, the more adult role models children have who demonstrate what it means to live in the way of Jesus, the better for the child’s positive faith formation. But, while these relationships are important, it has seemed to me that something is missing in these discussions, that there are perhaps one or two other factors of equal importance in providing a positive environment of faith formation.

I started to think about my own faith formation - what is it that has kept me a person of faith, who identifies as Christian, throughout my life? I had a nurturing, faithful family and faith community-based intergenerational relationships, but it seemed that there had to be other factors. I finally stumbled upon something else: the experience of God. Somewhere along the line God had become very real to me. Somewhere along the line I must have been able to identify those places where God was in-breaking into my life. As I thought about this I wondered if today’s families and churches help children to identify those times when God is very close. I believe they happen to children, but if we’ve never taught them how to name what is happening, do they even understand that this is the presence of God?

Several years ago I wanted to help kids name times when God entered into their lives but knew that if I simply asked them that question I would just receive blank stares from them. So I created a list of specific questions about God’s role in their life, and gave them several creative options to use in answering one or two of these questions. The questions were about times when God had answered a prayer, or a time when they felt God very close to them. After a time of individual creative response to the questions I gathered them back together in a group and asked them to share their answers to the question. I was amazed at the stories I heard about how they believed God had saved their lives, protected them from being hurt or had helped someone in their family. At the end I told them some stories from my life where I had felt God very close to me. There was no doubt, when asked in this way, that these children could identify God breaking into their lives. 

I recently read an interview with Princeton Seminary professor and youth ministry expert Kenda Creasy Dean. She said that we are failing to teach our children and youth how to speak ‘Christian.’ We fail to teach them the language and concepts of faith by connecting these to the concrete actions and presence of God in their lives. It seems to me that helping children to identify their experiences of God would be part of helping them to speak ‘Christian’. This means they need adults in their lives, parents and others, who know this language and can identify those times when God breaks into their own lives.

My challenge to you is this: how do we identify the in-breaking of God into our own lives? How do we share this with the children we work with, helping them to name God’s work in their lives?