Six New Things – Week of February 28, 2022
One last focus on Love – for this month, anyway: love for our children, love for creation, love for diversity, self-love transformed into hope, when love becomes action, and God’s love for us all.
ONE
A caregiver’s steady love for a child helps develop confidence, resilience, and emotional agility. Find words of affirmation for kids in I Love You All the Time (Free Spirit).
When emotional agility isn’t, keep lines of communication open and remove barriers of stigma and shame around mental health with Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence about Mental Health with Children and Teens (Chalice).
TWO
“Ground” that love – and expand on it – by reminding children of their beloved place in God’s beloved creation with beloved author/illustrator Agostino Traini‘s new offering, In the Beginning: A Creation Story Pop-Up Book (Beaming).
THREE
…AND remind kids of God’s ongoing Love for us all with the much-loved Snuggle Time Series: Easter Stories (Zonderkidz) from beloved author Glenys Nellist, who shares her Great Idea about reading stories to children at Teddy Bear Tea here.
FOUR
Let Love become hope with Colors of Hope: A Devotional Journal from LGBTQ+ Christians (Chalice) – which draws on stories from divers authors to create “a faith-based resource for every body […which] draws on the iconic Pride flag” and its original themes.
FIVE
Let Love become welcome with Wait-Is This Racist? A Guide to Becoming an Anti-Racist Church (WJK).
And see that radical welcome in action in Church at the Wall: Stories of Hope along the San Diego-Tijuana Border (Judson), the powerful story of how Border Church meets weekly to share communion – and hope – across/through the US/Mexico border wall.
SIX
How did love move toward justice before social media? The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas (Crown) reveals what our social media ecosystem lacks (patience, focus…) and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas that imagine a different future.
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As we move from Black History Month into Lent, I hope that Love is nourishing and guiding you every step of the way!
