With the number of executive orders coming out of the new administration, state legislatures back in session, and the Season of Lent coming up, you may be scratching your head wondering why I picked this topic for my February 2025 column. Please stick with me. In December I finished reading social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. In January I watched ELCA Lutherans from across the country descend on Louisville for the annual Youth Ministry Extravaganza. I have been thinking that with everything going on, we could easily lose sight of something so important: caring for the kids in our care.
I cannot think of a congregation in our synod that has no kids and teens in its sphere of care, whether in the form of preschools, childcare, Sunday School, or simply the myriads of church members who are parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends helping raise children. What does love and passing on the faith look like in your context? How can the Lutheran Christian lens or ear inform this ministry?
Equip kids to talk with you, a caring adult. My hair stylist told me that she restricts what her ten-year old can watch on YouTube, but that the daughter was at a friend’s house, and they ended up watching something false and disturbing. The daughter confessed this to her mom and told her how the video made her feel. I told my stylist this was an affirmation of her parenting—her daughter could talk with her, name her feelings, and understood the boundaries her mom was setting. General wisdom is that, in order to thrive, every kid needs at least five adults in their lives who are pouring into them. We can all be part of this equation in the lives of the kids and youth we know.
Teach kids how to talk with God. In addition to being able to have conversations with their parents and other caring adults, it is essential that we teach kids how to pray. The promises made in Holy Baptism include the promise to teach children the Lord’s Prayer, a guide for all other prayers, and to nurture them in faith and prayer. Try to remember the first time you realized you could bring everything to God. It is at once comforting, freeing, and awesome. Make sure the kids in your life know they can talk with God and tell them about your own prayer life.
Give Bibles to the kids in your life and read scripture with them. As with prayer, there is something life giving about knowing the whole biblical narrative and then realizing that the same God active in that story is the God who loves you! Start with the Spark Story Bible. Move onto the Action Bible. Pull out that old Good News Bible with its simple English, and finally give them an NRSV edition. If the first language of the kids in your life is not English, track down a Bible in their first language. Plus, the Bible is full of some pretty interesting stories!
Take kids into the great outdoors. Fortunately, in our synod there is no shortage of places to experience God’s grandeur, from the North Cascades and the Tetons to state and city parks to tossing a ball in your backyard. As I write this, youth and adults are headed to Lutherhaven for a Confirmation Retreat. Encourage kids to play freely and explore the wonders of the natural world.
Introduce kids to their neighbors. We believe all people are made in the image of God. There are many ways to introduce kids and teens to neighbors: block parties, community events, visual or musical arts, novels, movies, and travel. Just as learning our own family story and the story of God’s relationship with creation (through scripture), learning the stories of our neighbors, next door and across the globe, is part of the life of faith. It’s easier to follow the mandate to love our neighbor when we know them and have heard their stories.
Thank you for already caring for the kids and youth in your lives.
Bishop Meggan Manlove