This prayer is included in Prayers for The New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed.
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God
and She was known as Sophia.
A Prayer for Mothers
How Honoring Self Makes One a Better Mother
Jesus said that there is no greater commandment than to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Mk 12:31) Sometimes, the hardest part of this lesson is to love ourselves. Particularly for people who have been taught to put others needs before our own. For mothers, in a culture that demands self-sacrifice and putting the needs of our children before our own, this can be even more difficult. Sometimes, loving ourselves requires deeper self-knowledge and self-care than our culture recommends or even understands.
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Connecting the Dots Between Wild Violets, Fracking, and Homelessness
It’s springtime in North Carolina. Between the redbuds, dogwoods, azaleas, wisteria, lily of the valley, and the wild violets – my yard is a riot of color. This is the time of year when my girls and I gather wild violets and make violet jelly to enjoy with our tea and scones and when we turn the compost into our raised bed to begin to prepare the soil for our modest annual attempt at tomatoes, basil, and the odd pepper or melon. A robin has built her nest just in view of the kitchen window and last weekend we bought a hand-carved wooden nest box that we hung in hopes that a hummingbird will lay her eggs alongside our robin.
Continue reading Connecting the Dots Between Wild Violets, Fracking, and Homelessness
Contemplating College Admissions
My husband and I took our daughter on her first college visit last week. We were on spring break and for once, I was able to take the week off with my family (thank you sabbatical!!!!). There’s a great small college near where we were staying and we decided to drop in and check it out. She’s only a sophomore in high school but we thought it might help make the process more real for her.
The school is a small liberal arts college and one of the most progressive in the country. I think they top somebody’s “most vegan-friendly” list. The students were diverse and interesting, the class sizes were small, and the setting was beautiful. Our daughter was blown away – “Wow! Are all colleges like this?”
Do I Have To Go to Church?
With a teenage daughter in the house, I seem to get this question much more frequently on Sunday mornings than I used to. Especially since the nine-year old, who follows her sister’s lead in everything, has began to sing this refrain as well.
I grew up as a “PK” or a “preacher’s kid.” This was not a question that got asked in our house. Unless you had a fever of a 104 or couldn’t keep down your breakfast, you were going to church! And it wasn’t just worship on Sunday morning, it was Sunday school, worship, youth group, Wednesday night suppers, and any other “programming” that happened to be offered. As the preacher’s family, the Church was the center of our social world. This made sense for our family but there were many other families in our church who this was true for as well. The church family was a community, people knew each other and supported one another through life’s ups and downs. Continue reading Do I Have To Go to Church?
rebecca todd peters 