Skip to main content

Promises

I was a Girl Scout in my early years, and yes a Brownie before that; there weren’t Daisy Scouts back then. Each meeting started with the Girl Scout Promise, “On my honor, I will try…”  That was probably my first introduction to promises and promising.  There were many to follow.  From family commitments to childhood secrets we learn how to hold promises and make them part of ourselves. Later, the college I attended had an honor code requiring us to “pledge” every test and paper saying that “on my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized assistance on this test/paper.” This pledge, or promise, was bound by a promise to live and to learn in a particular way according to a particular set of guidelines for the community. 


Font, Word, and Table
Font, Word, and Table
Second Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN 
Our lives as Christians begin with hope and a promise.  Our parents hope for us, and pray for us. More than likely, our church family does, too! Sometimes those hopes are delayed or tempered, but we hope persistently.  Then promises are made at our baptism.  If we are very young, our parents and our church family make promises on our behalf, while standing in the fountain of God’s Holy Promise, that we are a Beloved Child of God.   If we are older, we make these promises for ourselves, but there are still church family promises to teach us, to visit us, and to take care of us.  There are promises to care for us, to pray for us, to hope with us, and to walk with us in the Holy Promise of being God’s family.

Wells at home in Second Presbyterian Church, a children's stewardship projectAs we grow, we make promises on our own about what we can contribute to a project at school or the small jobs around our home.  Ok, sometimes those are assigned, but we promise we will do them! Those projects and jobs change as we grow and learn new things.  Our children are talking about promises in Sunday School.  It is a wonderful time of learning what they have, what they can do, and how they can be part of the promises to teach, to visit, to take care, to pray, to hope and to walk.  Our children are making promise cards because we are a people of promise and they have gifts and talents and time and resources to contribute.  We need them as an active part of God’s family!  Here at Second, children  work in the garden to provide food for the hungry.  Children encourage their families to help sort clothes for the naked.  Children and their families work with their church- family- of- promise to visit with the homeless.  The children live into the promise that has been celebrated at their birth, at their baptism, and in the daily/weekly/monthly/yearly living as part of the Holy Promise of being God’s family here at Second Presbyterian Church, our Second Home. 
children creating art project in Sunday School

All of that will not fit on a card handed out in Sunday School, but every moment-minute-hour-word is made holy by doing it in the name of the one who claims us at our baptism; I promise. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something.  We stop.  We wait.  We rest.  We sit.  However, that is a lot of work!  I think of Sabbath as “making a space.”  It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God.  It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit.  In this context Sabbath is a return to our making.  You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human.  It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life.  Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Churching where we are: We are ALL able around God’s table!

I sat in the sanctuary Sunday, and it felt VAST.   Some might think of it as “empty…” but there was a huge sense of space and a connection to beyond the walls.   I realized that Our Church circle is SO WIDE! We were gathered, in our own homes, but each of us was there standing, kneeling, sitting,and  praying together before our God.   Your home is a “room” in the House of God if we gather in the name of Jesus Christ.   Kid’s club has been talking a lot about how we do not do “random” acts of kindness.   We do them on purpose!   We do INTENTIONAL acts of kindness in the name of Jesus Christ.   We do them because Jesus asked us to do them! God helps us to do them! It is part of who we are and WHOSE we are as God’s beloved children. One activity from Kids Club is the “I CAN” cube .   It helps to remind us that, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).  You can do this at home.   Take an em...
Post a Comment
Read more

“For a time such as this…”

The book of Esther is a difficult one, but it is important.  It speaks of power! There is personal power, royal power, and providential power.  It is a book that can be difficult to discuss with children and anyone who has been voiceless; however, it is not a book exhaulting the victim.  Esther is not a submissive girl who gives up.  She has inner strength and power.  She lives her life and draws on her community.  When the time comes, she uses her wisdom to be a vessel for the will of God.  Her uncle tells her, “perhaps you have been made royal for a time such as this.”  We often skip the “royal,” in our attempt to make the message universal.  However, we forget that we are children of "the king of all creation" and therefore “royal.”  I cannot help wondering how the Rev. Becca Stevens hears the book of Esther? Rev. Stevens works with women who have been commercialized and abused.  She teaches that "#LoveHeals." ...
Post a Comment
Read more