Remember & Reflect

Whether or not you've started reading Teaching Godly Play, you likely have more questions than answers about what exactly this approach to children's spirituality is. My first impulse is to get the fire hose out and craft a thorough response to every question I imagine you asking as you sort through the ins and outs of Godly Play.

But of course no one enjoys trying to drink from a fire hose, so I'll stick to reasonable sips.

Which brings me to one helpful exercise for any adult learning Godly Play: Remember and Reflect. Remember your experience of God as a child, how you viewed God, what your deepest joys and deepest fears were. And reflect on why you experienced God as such, why you held these views, why you feared what you did, why you found safety where you did. As Berryman would argue, whether or not you grew up in a Christian home, you were experiencing God--you just may not have had the language to describe it that way. One of the primary goals of Godly Play is to give children language to understand and express their experiences of God.

Remembering and reflecting on our own experiences of God as children keep us mindful of what the children we teach may be experiencing.

Please read this brief essay by Sally Lloyd-Jones (author of The Jesus Storybook Bible), posted on Ann Voskamp's blog. Though she is not affiliated with Godly Play in any way that I'm aware of, she remembers and reflects on her experience of God and church as a child and reaches some conclusions that resonate with Godly Play.