Parenting young children is challenging on a good day. Trying to deepen our connection to God and foster spiritual development for their young minds in the midst of it? Even harder. In our time, the expectations for parents is unlike any generation before us. And too often, the narrative regarding spiritual formation that we receive or make up can look a lot more like adding something else we “should” be doing to our abundance of already spinning (and sometimes falling) plates. It seems like we need to try harder, dig deeper, get quieter, do more, and the problem is that we’re just, well, exhausted. Or dinner is burning and the baby is crying. Or the science project is due tomorrow and the sweet kiddo just remembered.. at bedtime. You know the drill. It’s a lot. And perhaps doing more is not the path that God had in mind in the first place. 

This is a course for those parents. The ones who desire to deepen their connection with God even as they go about their busy, stretched-thin parenting lives. It’s for parents who long to feel God’s presence and care and maybe need it now more than ever. In fact, this is a six week course looking directly at the way God is parenting us and caring for us as we parent and care for our children. It’s a journey out of exhaustion and trying harder into being cherished and carried, where we don’t have to “do” more for God but simply get to be loved. It’s a reframe of spiritual disciplines needed in these young parenting days, where the work of being a parent is holy and an opportunity for connection with God in and of itself. And it’s from a mother and a therapist actively walking out the journey herself, dedicated to emotionally healthy spirituality.

The weekly lessons, daily practices, and suggested readings are offered as a way to lighten the load on your shoulders through introspection, education, and rest. The feel of the class will be laced with compassion. The course is set up void of shame, judgment, and the try-harder narrative, as I find those things to only complicate our relationships with God, our families, and ourselves. The hope is that this course will lead you deeper into an awareness of God’s love for you and presence with you while simultaneously setting up avenues of connecting with God that model healthy spirituality for your children as well.