Alphabitty Moments--Week 8

The letter Hh!

(Left page)

(Right page)

We are a blended-faith family. Kind of. Jim and I are both Christians, but Jim was raised Catholic: Catholic school, holy days of obligation, confession, Catholic college--the works. I, on the other hand was raised Methodist, and my father even became a Methodist minister after retiring from 23 years in the military. When Will and Jack were small, we thought we had the perfect plan for our boys' religious education as we brought them up in a Christ-centered home. We would attend Methodist church until they were in middle school, at which point we would begin their Catholic educations, so that they could decide for themselves at confirmation time. What seemed reasonable in theory proved challenging in practice for a number of reasons. First, Gabe came along...he was only beginning school when Will and Jack reached middle school age. If we were to follow through on our plan, we would have to attend different churches. This was not the message I wanted to send to my sons. Families should worship together. Jim had been great for the 12 years we attended Methodist church and never once complained. When we moved to Connecticut, we searched for a Methodist church that could feed us spiritually in the way our church in California had...a place we could grow and serve. When nothing measured up, we sought out a Catholic church. All 4 of our sons were baptized by my father in the Methodist church. We have held off with communion until they could understand the difference between the Eucharist at Mass and holy communion in protestant denominations. Once Will and Jack took their First Communion, they began attending catechism. Gabe and Nicholas are missing out on the protestant Sunday school experience, and we are looking for a way to remedy that. Sunday school played an important role in the formation of our older sons' spiritual foundation. Because of all they learned in Sunday school and Wednesday Night Live sessions, they understood enough to participate in great discussions about faith after catechism. "Why do we believe...Mom, do you believe...?"

Wow! That is a lot of background! Anyway, this page has pictures from both denominations. We try to keep the focus on God and his works, not the worldly expression of our faith. The pictures on the left are from Nicholas's baptism--on the top is Nick and my dad, and on the bottom are Nicholas's godparents (the Methodist church does not do godparents, but it was important to Jim that we do that like his family always has). On the top right is Will's and Jack's Holy First Communion, and on the bottom right is a photo after Ash Wednesday of this year, when Nick received his first blessing and ashes. It is all very eclectic and probably "weird" to many, but it is less important to me how they worship than it is who and that they worship!

Go see what my amazing Alphabitty friends over at MamaBear's site have come up with!