October 15
Beloved families of Good Shepherd,
Peace be with you! During the week I really enjoy sharing the stories of our faith with the preschool students at Good Shepherd Day School. I usually share a new Bible story each week using our Godly Play curriculum. In her book, Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From, author Meredith Miller encourages parents and ministers to focus on God-centered storytelling when sharing Bible stories with children. Miller says God is the true hero throughout the Bible because the Spirit of God equips and enables ordinary humans to do extraordinary things for the cause of Love.
Miller also recommends focusing solely on God’s goodness when sharing Bible stories with preschool-age children or children of any age who are new to God and the Bible. With God’s goodness as the foundation of every Bible story, young children learn that God is trustworthy. For example, in the Parable of the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd reveals his goodness because he leads his sheep to the good grass and the cool water. The Good Shepherd is also good because he always looks for the one lost sheep until he finds him and carries him home safely.
As children experience the goodness and kindness of God in the stories of our faith, they will learn to trust God from an early age. With this foundation of trust in the character of God, children will feel safe to grow in close relationship with God. In this Sunday’s appointed reading, the prophet Jeremiah knows God’s desire for everyone, from youngest to oldest, to live in close union with the Holy Trinity, who is Love: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
This Sunday our children are invited to carry the donations of pajamas to the altar in memory of one of our young parishioners, Zac Goodpaster. Zac died at the young age of four in 2017. Every year we remember Zac on his birthday by collecting gifts of pajamas for the hospitalized children at UK Children’s Hospital.
We hope to see you this Sunday!
Many Blessings,
Patty