Child’s Prayer Chain
This is the prayer chain Eden made for her friend, Rosie. And here is the way the kid’s use it. (The brown beads are spacer beads.)
Children’s Prayer Chain
The Trinity Beads
Bead One: We welcome you Mama God/Papa God
Bead Two:We welcome you brother Jesus
Bead Three: We welcome you sister Spirit.
The Prayer Beads
Bead Four: Jesus loves me this I know
Bead Five: For my heart’s song tells me so
Bead Six: Little ones to God belong,
Bead Seven: When we’re weak, God is strong
Bead Eight: Yes, Jesus loves me
Bead Nine: Yes, Jesus loves me
Bead Ten: Yes, Jesus loves me
Bead Eleven: He loves me all day/night long.
The Amen Bead: Amen!
Rosie and I are thinking about making her a braclet with beads for each of her family members who live away from her….sort of a rememberence chain. She seemed to like that idea. 
I betcha there’s a significant reason why Bead 11 is “loves me all day long” and not “the Bible tells me so,” isn’t there?
Also, singing that Jesus loves me all night long makes me uncomfortable. Apparently, I’m homophobic enough for it to bother me. But cut me some slack, I don’t even blink when being the Bride of Christ.
I think this is a wonderful idea–and beautiful, too. What a great way to teach about Jesus.
Hey Rachelle,
Shannon emailed you about these the other day…… Where did you get the beads and the medallion? (fussion beads?) I am thinking about doing this with the teens in my youth group.
Matt
Once again you and your family have me gobsmacked - this is awesome!
hey matt,
did i forget to email shannon? i think it did. If not, so sorry!
the beads were from old necklaces. i bought a bag of jewlery from value village for $20 and took it apart. even the medallions and crosses were in the bag! but yes, you can get all that stuff at fusion beads…or artist and craftsman has inexpensive tins of mixed colored glass beads. beads can really add up fast!
also, one word of warning. don’t string them on anything but soft flex wire (available at fusion beads/bead stores.) i tried string and beading wire that wasn’t coated, and they broke. yep. i’ve strung these beads three times now!
:-)
R
Thanks! I want to do this with the girls I teach too! Excellent!
What happened to “the Bible tells me so?” Is
one’s heartsong now the greater arbiter of this?
And in the move to gender neutrality when it comes
to God the Father, why are you now declaring the
Spirit to be solely feminine??
Inconsistent, it would seem.
Xanna
Xanna,
Welcome to the blog!
I used heart-song in this version because most tradition songs for kid’s emphasize the Bible as the arbiter of truth. But I think our spirit/soul/heart tells us true things too. So for this version of “Jesus loves me” I opted for “heart song” in order to teach the girls that when they “know in thier hearts” that God loves them, that’s true too. I figure they’ll sing the “Bible tells me so” version plenty of times in their lifetime! They’ll learn that truth as well.
In our evening blessing we bless the kids “In the name of the God who birthed and Created Us, in the name of the Son, who is our brother and friend, and in the name of the Holy Spirit she who is our guide.” A long while back, before we started this version of the blessing, I asked Eden what the HS looked like. Eden told us that “she” had long flowing hair and a beautiful flowing white dress and purple eyes. The HS often has a feminine feeling to me as well, so we tend to refer the the HS in the feminine. The masculine aspects of the Godhead are so overemphaised in most church traditions, that I think it’s wise for me to teach the girls about the feminine aspect of the Godhead as often as possible. Otherwise they, like I, will grow up thinking that they weren’t made in God’s image — just the boys.
It’s just a personal choice that our family is making as we consider what kind of soulcare our children need.
Thanks for the questions,
Rachelle
Rachelle,
Many thanks for your responses to my questions. They make
great sense to me and I appreciate the thought that is behind
what you are doing with your kiddos.
I also appreciate your blog!!
Xanna
I COMPLETELY stole both the idea and the prayer for my son and I’s God-time this weekend. See my blog for the results.
Promise to ask next time we steal any of your/the kid’s ideas!
What a wonderful, beautiful post. And the beads are lovely. I just adore the way you incorporated the feminine into diety with such simple grace. I may have to retell this at my place soon. Peace.
your creative ways of connecting spiritually are inspiring
thanks