My young adult has left the Church (part 1)

This is a little series of posts I put out in 2010, at the time they were helpful for a number of people, I hope that continues to be true today.

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Over the past many months I have been approached by several parents of young adults who have, in some form or fashion, rejected the Church or the Christian religion in some form. I am sure it is because I am of the same cohort of their child or because I am a minister or these parents love their child or (more likely) a combination of reasons, these wonderful parents ask for guidance. After many conversations with parents who tell me the same story (albeit with different characters and little nuances) it has given me cause to write down what I have been sharing with these parents. This is not a formula on "how to get your kid back in church". Nor is it by any means going to be 100% effective in all situations, but generally speaking, I have found these steps to be a good starting point for these parents (or so they have shared with me).

1) If you have a child who is leaving church or religion, do not panic. This may be difficult to do in the moment, but panic is a reaction and in a "status update/twitter" world, reactions are all young people get and know how to fuel (with more shock). Do not panic.

This might be enough for right now. Check back in two days and I will post the other actions I have found to be helpful for adults who find themselves at a loss with their young adult.

54 sides to a story

Every night our son is like most kids, they stall going to sleep as long as they can. We read books, like many people do but that only takes fifteen minutes, which by kid standards is only a blink of an eye.  So recently, Jude has been asking for stories. 

Great. I have the story creating capacity of a wet towel. 

Then I met these little dice. 

In case you are new to this little blog, I have a bit of a nerd side to me that exhibits itself through games that involve dice.

Needless to say I am now in love with these dice. They allow me to roll dice (when Jude lets me) in order to tell a story while working my creative muscles.

This does not mean I have moved from wet towel to George Lucas, but there is nothing better then when your kids love and your love cross paths.

"You Won't Remember This Either"

This sort animation moved me as I think of my son growing up.

The Animated Life: ‘You Won’t Remember This Either’
By By Jeff Scher
Published: January 6, 2009
A filmmaker turns his eye on his toddler in this animated short.

I will add the strangeness of being a dad has gotten to me lately. It is an amazing and scary thing to look at my son. He is full of life, joy, light and energy. He laughs at the simplest of things, and like most children he is fascinated with lent, mini blinds, day old Cheerios on the floor and wrapping paper. Jude brings me great joy, laughter and delight... it is amazing.

And yet, each time I look at him I am reminded of my own mortality. As he gains a head of beautiful thin hair, my own grows thinner. While he learns to crawl faster and walk even faster, I find it harder to get up out of couches as I used to. As he gets older so do I. Being a parent of one eleven month old really really has been a season of simultaneously expanding and condensing of time.