I will not make my children be second-hand owners of their spiritual lives
Itching and squirming in it-fitting hand-me-down values,
Tripping over hems left long to conceal all things and restrict the feet from wandering,
Suffocating under high collars drawn up to keep the throat and it’s expressions muffled in subservience masquerading as respect.
Talk back, my darlings.
With full expression and loud noise!
Let my ears be witness to all of your anger and all of your joy.
For your own safety, ask your questions and point fingers at the inconsistencies-those half-built pillars that would leave you beneath the rubble before you even know what has happened.
Share the discovery of your truths with me and I will sing them back to you in a lullaby of radical love and acceptance.
Sing freely the throaty birdsong of a fledgling soul that knows its own sovereignty and trusts the safety of a nest that is not a prison, but a home.
Wander, my dears.
When your longings call to you, run to them with unencumbered feet
That is where you will meet the holy mystery on the secret paths know only to you.
And when you have found your secret place shed every covering you have ever known and dance,
clothed fully in the presence of the divine.
Phoebe is a single stay at home mom in Northwest Florida where she is homeschooling four beautiful children and two American pit bull terriers. While she dreams of being a “real writer” someday, for now she is fully immersed in the sacred work of motherhood and occasionally uses her love of words to share that with others.
Magnificent!
Phoebe, I am cheering you on as you teach your children to be wise and aware that not all that appears holy is so. Evil often hides within he church. I experienced this first hand. I loved the line, “Suffocating under high collars drawn up to keep the throat and its expressions muffled in subservience masquerading as respect.” Keep teaching your”fledging souls” that their words have power and to use them. Jesus never meant for his church to be a place that harbors evil and certainly not a place that calls evil good.
Absolutely beautiful!
“Share the discoveries of your truth with me”, is like opening up any kind of conversation for your children… on their level… And YES!! it will give you great pathways of stretching their minds and hearts towards the divine. I treasured every moment discussing my children’s thoughts and dreams and questions, but there may come a time when children will look in another direction, and and then decide that a mother’s “music” is her own and not theirs. This is when we must place our faith in our Father’s hands and lean on the fact that we truly raised up a child in the WAY they should go, and in their old age, they shall not depart from it. I love your heart against the legalism of the church…but when they are on their own before we are prepared for that time, place your heart solely in God’s Word. I’m a single mom too.
Yes! No more hand me down Christianity with all the extra eyelet.