Baking Bread & Forming Christian Imagination

In our homeschool co-op, I teach a group children, ages 4-7. When we recently learned about prayer, I asked them, “What is your favorite way to pray?”

The top two answers: singing and dancing!

I had planned to pray with them in whatever ways they said they loved to pray, so I followed their lead and we proceeded to turn on worship music and dance around the room. With streamers.

Though we adults certainly have a lot of wisdom to impart to our children, they also have much (more?) to give us. In terms of our relationship with God, we can become stunted and narrow. They remain expansive—their relationship with God is full of awe and wonder. It can be simple and delightful; it is full of love.

What if we adults could step into this space and walk the road of discipleship with the children in our lives—arms linked, on the journey toward Christ together.

In my children’s book, The Restless Grain: A Tale of Hope, I’ve included a recipe for unleavened bread to help bring the Last Supper to life—for both us adults and our children.

The recipe is a simple and practical way for us to enter into a space of prayer and imagination with our children. Together, we can make and taste a bread similar to what Jesus would have had at the Last Supper.

You could read The Restless Grain or the story of the Last Supper from Scripture before making the bread or while it bakes.

As we enter Holy Week next week, I invite you to step into your role as a child of your Heavenly Father and walk alongside your children as they also learn to know, love, and serve their Father in Heaven.

If you have already purchased The Restless Grain, I thank you with as much thanks as I can express from this side of my keyboard for your support! This little seed of a book has sold almost 600 copies and I’ve been blessed to visit schools, parishes, and moms groups to read it and get to know so many lovely people.

If you haven’t purchased a copy of the book, or you have and can think of someone else who might also enjoy it, I invite you to purchase it here.

To invite me to read and speak at your school or parish, please visit my website here and fill in the contact form.

God bless you and the little dear ones in your life—they are true gifts from our Father in Heaven.