Teenagers & Common Prayer

This morning was a bold move for Elissa and me.  With much fervor we decided to involve the teenagers in our devotional adventure through the liturgy.  They could not define liturgy but it seems community is central to all of this anyway, so we took a gamble.

After responsively reading through the first prayer, Steffen said, "All we are doing is reading together?" He was certainly on to something.  Singing through a quick couple of verses of our favorite Mount Song, Sanctuary (a shallow substitute for "Steal Away Jesus") and Brianna was actually joining in.  Mostly to drown out the rest of us who struggled to sing on key.  The Psalm was then shared by Steffen and Brianna responsively.   Just as the scriptures were going to be opened and all the deep theological questions answered, time was up.  The bus was headed our way, at least that was their story and we had little recourse.

What grand hopes we had for the Spirit to consume us as we faithfully sought Him out through this exercise.  After the door had closed and a brief calm ensued, Elissa and I heard from God through Jean Vanier (A huge hero of ours) "They accept the community and the other members as they are; they are confident that together they can grow towards something more beautiful."

Wow!  Thank you Lord for the gift of our built in community the family...how sacred this opportunity to be together even if the assignment is not completed.  We praise you for bringing it to completion in your time frame.
Drink Deeply Community of Faith, how blessed we are to have one another...
Blessings,
Jeremy