Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Join us for a potluck and games. Childcare for children through 5th grade-ish will be available. After supper, Parents will gather for a time of community building and reflecting on the book In the Midst of Chaos (Looking at Editor’s Forward, Preface, chapters 1 and 2). You don’t have to have read the book to come and be a part of the discussion!

In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice
by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

The book is available from Tammy Martens for $15.00. Fifteen books have been purchased. More are available.

“Letting go of children goes against the grain of human self-preservation. It is hard because we have to let go of part of ourselves—a very precious part of ourselves, at that—that we have incorporated into ourselves in loving the other. Letting go requires trust that we—and they—are preserved and upheld by a force greater than our own efforts.

The Christian tradition has long sought to sustain such trust. Children are gifts, given to us on loan by a gracious God as part of God’s good creation. Perhaps the hardest spiritual lesson or the most difficult virtue to acquire in the care of children over the long run is returning oneself and those most loved to God’s care and protection…It is only such trust that finally allows parents to stop short of using children to build up themselves, and love their children genuinely.”