Adult
As First Day School teachers, one of the richest resources for us is the accumulated faith experience of seasoned Friends. Their stories of God’s comfort, guidance, and leadings make compelling listening. Helping our children to grow up to be committed, passionate Quakers requires finding concrete ways for intergenerational faith-sharing to occur.
Creating a “Gifts of Faith” booklet is one way to encourage this sharing. This idea was originally suggested to me by Ellen McCambley, of Wellesley Meeting. She and her brothers and sisters were gathering prayers and words of spiritual support that had upheld them to give as a gift to all of the children in their family. They were creating a booklet of these treasured words.
A First Day School can prepare a Gifts of Faith booklet as a meeting-wide project. Ask the adult Friends for the two or three prayers, passages of Scripture, or lines from hymns or poems that they call to mind when they need spiritual support. There are many inspirational books but here the focus is to share words drawn from real lives of faith and action that the children know.