• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Stephanie J Thompson

exploring sacred connections with God and each otherr

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Mental Health Resources
  • Speaking

How an Errand With Your Child Becomes a Sacred Moment

October 11, 2016 by Stephanie Leave a Comment

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

We’ve all been there.  After a day or days filled with non-stop activity, or caring for family in a myriad of breathless ways, you long for a respite.
AHHHHHHH!
A dreamy illusion of a bubble bath with soft, relaxing music in the background fades. So you go for the next best thing: an excursion to the store-and maybe a little splurge on a coffee drink as a treat by yourself.  All you yearn for is a few minutes away from the beckoning voices and drama. Yes, it is an errand-but it’s a few moments of gather -your- thoughts solitude. There might even be an opportunity to sneak a peek at some article of clothing or cute piece of dinnerware that usually gets a glance as your attention is diverted by securing the items that were actually on your list.
Ahhhhhhh…….
looking
In my life this is what really happens…. After announcing of my impending departure to the store,  my teen occasionally follows me as I walk out the door. “I’m going to come along.”
What?
I try to explain that, really, I’m just going to pick up a “few things” (including that coffee drink) and I’ll be right back.  But my response is not met with success.
He persists, “I don’t care. I’m bored.”
The voice in my head argues back, “I just wanted to go to the store by myself.”
But saying those words doesn’t feel quite right.
And, despite my best efforts to escape by myself, I find myself giving in. When your teen son wants to tag along with his mother, that becomes a sacred moment.  In this phase of life, a few stolen moments with my son are hard to come by-especially if they are initiated by me.

My son tends to open up in the car-about everything.  His normally quiet demeanor transforms into a verbal conversationalist on all kinds of topics.  Those thoughts that have reserved space in his mind and feelings in his heart let loose.  Burdens are shared and a heart, which often pushes away helpful pieces of wisdom from his “you-don’t-know-what-it’s-like” parent, opens up to receive.
I am reminded of the generations of mamas who have experienced similar tensions.  Maybe the venue was different. Perhaps, it was a matter of finding those sacred moments in the field as they gathered crops or walking to the market.
It’s into those moments that God spoke:
” Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.”  Deut. 6:6-8 (The Message)
These sacred moments provide the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to take the word of God-if even for a few moments-out of our mouths and into their hearts. In addition, we are able to model the incarnate Jesus, who often exuded the love of God by listening and asking questions. Those opportunities don’t always arise at the most convenient times in our agendas-but sometimes what we really need, we don’t always recognize. And that is when I am thankful that the Holy Spirit gives me a nudge (sometimes it’s more like a punch.)
There is nothing wrong with taking time for yourself.  There are times when escaping to your oasis of choice is the absolute best thing for you and those around you.  But also remember, that God answers our prayers in ways we don’t often expect.  It may come in the form of running to the store.
Where do you find your sacred moments with your kids?
 

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Sacred Connections Tagged With: alone, car, Jesus, mama, parent, sacred, talk, teach, teens, time

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

When my first child was born 20 plus years ago, I envisioned taking just a few years off from my role as Pastor of Youth and Family. While that didn’t exactly unfold as expected, God used my gifts and skills in other ways. Read More…

Member of Redbud Writers Guild

Follow me!

Follow me!
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Never Miss a Post

Top Posts

  • Helping Your Kids Define Success on Their Own Terms
    Helping Your Kids Define Success on Their Own Terms
  • Thirteen Years Flew by in a Blink But God Was Aware of it All
    Thirteen Years Flew by in a Blink But God Was Aware of it All
  • How I Found Gratitude After Grief
    How I Found Gratitude After Grief

s2thomp

#redbudwriter #stephaniejthompson #imagodei #surre #redbudwriter #stephaniejthompson #imagodei #surrendertogod
Instagram post 17913282691674085 Instagram post 17913282691674085
"This moment for Jesus is a far cry from the one o "This moment for Jesus is a far cry from the one on the mountain. There, he stood with his two closest friends- Peter and John. There, God’s presence was affirmed in the bright cloud which appeared overhead. There, God’s voice proclaimed publicly, ““This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

Now, God’s presence does not appear in such a tangible form. God’s voice is silent. No public affirmation of his identity. No reminder that he is God’s beloved." Read the rest: www.stephaniejthompson.com

#goodfriday #stephaniejthompson
“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Get “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” Mark 14:36-39.

He arrived at this moment baring his vulnerability. The implications of his possible next steps weighed heavily upon him. All of his being: mind, body, spirit. Divine yet human. Sitting in emotions does not equal sin. Crying out to his father demonstrated trust even in this dark moment. It witnesses to the intimacy of their relationship. God can hold us in all spaces and places.

The question Jesus asks sits with us because we have all been there. As Tish Harrison Warren writes in Prayer of the Night, “We don’t get to choose our preferred crosses or resurrections.” Embracing life in the Kingdom Jesus ushered in transforms us. Like Jesus promised, it is an abundant life. But not without it’s sorrows. Because the identity of being Theotokoi (God Bearers) means laying down our lives as daily rhythms.

 So we demonstrate, by transparently living our moments, the tension of living in this place of in between. But sometimes, the reality of the tension overwhelms our senses. We cry out in our anguished humanity for the cup to pass from our hands in the midst of fear, and uncertainty about the path forward.: Illness, loss, advocating for the marginalized, death.

But we can also cling to the hope in God who hears us, holds us, and sees the redemption at work in ways we cannot. All while entering into our moments of despair with a love that knows no bounds of time, space, expectation. Jesus took the cup. And we can because he did.

#Redbud writer #gardenofgethsemane #maundythursday #trustingod #stephaniejthompson
Load More... Follow on Instagram
My Tweets

Archives

Categories

  • Advent
  • Easter
  • five minute friday
  • Help! This was not in the book!
  • Sacred Connections

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6 other subscribers

Footer

Portfolio

s2thomp

#redbudwriter #stephaniejthompson #imagodei #surre #redbudwriter #stephaniejthompson #imagodei #surrendertogod
Instagram post 17913282691674085 Instagram post 17913282691674085
"This moment for Jesus is a far cry from the one o "This moment for Jesus is a far cry from the one on the mountain. There, he stood with his two closest friends- Peter and John. There, God’s presence was affirmed in the bright cloud which appeared overhead. There, God’s voice proclaimed publicly, ““This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

Now, God’s presence does not appear in such a tangible form. God’s voice is silent. No public affirmation of his identity. No reminder that he is God’s beloved." Read the rest: www.stephaniejthompson.com

#goodfriday #stephaniejthompson
“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Get “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” Mark 14:36-39.

He arrived at this moment baring his vulnerability. The implications of his possible next steps weighed heavily upon him. All of his being: mind, body, spirit. Divine yet human. Sitting in emotions does not equal sin. Crying out to his father demonstrated trust even in this dark moment. It witnesses to the intimacy of their relationship. God can hold us in all spaces and places.

The question Jesus asks sits with us because we have all been there. As Tish Harrison Warren writes in Prayer of the Night, “We don’t get to choose our preferred crosses or resurrections.” Embracing life in the Kingdom Jesus ushered in transforms us. Like Jesus promised, it is an abundant life. But not without it’s sorrows. Because the identity of being Theotokoi (God Bearers) means laying down our lives as daily rhythms.

 So we demonstrate, by transparently living our moments, the tension of living in this place of in between. But sometimes, the reality of the tension overwhelms our senses. We cry out in our anguished humanity for the cup to pass from our hands in the midst of fear, and uncertainty about the path forward.: Illness, loss, advocating for the marginalized, death.

But we can also cling to the hope in God who hears us, holds us, and sees the redemption at work in ways we cannot. All while entering into our moments of despair with a love that knows no bounds of time, space, expectation. Jesus took the cup. And we can because he did.

#Redbud writer #gardenofgethsemane #maundythursday #trustingod #stephaniejthompson
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Categories

  • Advent
  • Easter
  • five minute friday
  • Help! This was not in the book!
  • Sacred Connections

Copyright © 2021 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in