Spiritual Conversations with Children
We are born into this world with a natural longing to connect to God and other human beings. When children have a listening companion who hears, acknowledges, and encourages their early experiences with God, it creates a spiritual footprint that shapes their lives. How can we increase our capacity to engage children in spiritual conversations?
In this book Lacy Finn Borgo draws on her own experience of practicing spiritual direction with children. She offers an overview of childhood spiritual formation and introduces key skills for engaging conversation—posture, power, and patterns—from a Christ-centered perspective.
"When we are fully present and open to another, we will be changed," Borgo writes. "Indeed, as you listen to God with a child, the child will lead you into a fuller experience of God's love and acceptance."
In this book you'll find:
- Sample interactive dialogues with children
- Ideas for engaging children with play, art, and movement
- Prayers to use together
Whether you are a parent or grandparent, pastor or spiritual director, you will find this to be a friendly guide into deeper ways of listening.
"Learning to be truly present to another human being is the crying need of our day. For children, the need is double and triple. By gripping story and vivid metaphor, Lacy Finn Borgo shows us step-by-step how we can be truly present when we are with others, children especially. Spiritual Conversations with Children provides us with open windows and swinging doors onto the inner lives of children. I recommend it highly."
"It has been said that children are natural contemplatives. Lacy Finn Borgo quotes a child as saying, 'We're detectives looking for the fingerprints of God,' an excellent definition of contemplatives. In this book about her ministry of listening with spiritual attunement to children, Borgo offers us a rare gift—the opportunity to notice some of those holy fingerprints in the lives of children, including the children we once were and the ones we now know. With practical suggestions, theological insight, and salty wisdom, Spiritual Conversations with Children helps us know better how to welcome, learn from, and bless children as Jesus would have us do."