Prayer Gardens for Teachers

At the end of every year I pull together a small gift to thank our volunteer teachers for their ministries. It is always a challenge to keep within the budget and still find a nice way to say thank you. This year I got creative with prayer gardens and I was happy with how they turned out, so I thought I would share them here!

I started with a very inexpensive Zen Garden set from Dollar General, which included a small tray, a rake, a few stones, and some sand. I added more stones and doubled the sand that came with the set. I also added a few shells as a reminder of baptism, and tea light candles to represent the light of Christ. Then I made a set of guided prayer suggestions for using the garden, and put everything together in a gift bag.

I hope our teachers enjoy their little prayer gardens as much I enjoy mine. You can read more about what I have included in my prayer garden at home and ways that I have used it in previous posts.

I've just returned from an amazing week of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 3 Training in Saginaw, Michigan. I'll post more soon about this wonderful experience.

Try This! Lenten Prayer Garden

Last year I wrote about a meditation garden I made for my family to explore during the season of Lent. You can see photos of it and read about the supplies I collected to use in the garden in this post on observing Lent at Home. This year, I revisited the idea and made a few changes.

Last Lent, I set the meditation garden, prayer ideas, and supplies on a table in a quiet corner of our dining room for family members to use during the day.  Just before Lent began this year, my husband Mark asked if there were any candles we could light at dinner time as we do in Advent. I thought again of our meditation garden and decided to adapt it for meal time use. I found a smaller bowl to hold the sand, and bought some purple tea light candles to use in the garden. I kept a small bowl of stones on the kitchen table with the garden but left the other supplies in the dinning room to be brought out as needed.

Each night at dinner we light a candle and pray together. I have been adapting the prayer ideas I created for individual use for our little group, and bringing in supplies as needed. Most often, we each choose a rock and pray for a special concern or a thanksgiving before adding it to the garden. Other times I have left a little verse of scripture in the garden and we have prayed with it before adding our rocks.

There are so many ways to pray with this garden before meals! I love using it this way. It has really set Lent apart for our family and it is helping us to pray together in new ways.

Two wonderful blogging friends of mine, Sheila at Explore and Express, and Storyteller at Wonderful in an Easter kind of Way are collecting links with ideas for preparing for Easter. I am listing this post in their Lenten Link-Up Party. Click here to see all of the great posts they have collected!  

Meditation Garden Update

We've been away on vacation, but I am back and working on an atrium post which should be on the blog soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share how much I am enjoying our meditation garden this Lent. I've gotten into the practice of praying with my garden every day. 

In the morning, I empty the garden and arrange the sand (with curves or impressions, or by adding some pine cones or greenery to the garden). Then I place a candle in the sand and light it with a prayer remembering that Jesus is our light. 

I've been choosing a stone for each prayer concern or thanksgiving that I wish to focus on. I pray with the stone in my hand, then place it in the garden near the light. I've kept the candle lit all day when I am home working and in the evening, and whenever I want to pray I sit near it and chose another stone. It has been really wonderful to "see" my prayers gathered around the light throughout the day.

Our Atrium and Youth classes are meeting again this Sunday after taking a week off for Spring Break. We'll see you and your family at 9:15 am!

Lent at Home!

I have finally put together some things around my house for our family observance of Lent and thought I would share them with you here.

One thing I've done is put the shepherd and sheep from my Nativity Scene back on the mantle to remind us of the Good Shepherd. At Christmas this year, my Mom gave me the set that my Grandmother made for our family in the 1960's and I have really enjoyed having it. My reluctance to put it away gave me the idea to enjoy it as a reminder of the Good Shepherd. I sometimes light a candle next to the Good Shepherd it in the evening. Isn't it beautiful?

I also put together a meditation garden for my family this year. I made several of these a few years ago as Confirmation gifts for two young women who are special to me. I've seen nature tables and meditation gardens around on the web, but the idea really came together for me after our Church used the book and Leader's Guide for "My Faith, My Life", a wonderful Confirmation program by Jenifer Gamber. She has the confirmands work with a garden like this each week at their meetings. I utilized some of her ideas and added some of my own to make a set of cards with suggestions for praying with the meditation garden.

Here are some of the supplies I have pulled together for our family. You can see I have stones (for building paths and "altars," representing prayers concerns, etc.). I also have a bottle of water and of scented oil, and a few shells as symbols of baptism. The shells can be used to make impressions in the sand, can be arranged in the garden, or can hold water or oil. The candles remind us of Jesus - the light of the world. I found some little pieces of fence to make shapes and paths in the sand. There is a stick with some pine cones attached that I found on a walk. I also added some small wooden shapes with pieces of scripture written on them that I received at Vacation Bible School once.

The lenten prayer chain we made on Shrove Tuesday is hanging in the window in our kitchen. I am really enjoying this lenten discipline. My husband had the wonderful idea of tearing off the day's prayer focus in the morning so that we can pray with it throughout the day, and then pray together with it before dinner. Such a little thing but it has made a big difference!

Are you doing something for lent with your family this year? If not, it isn't too late! Check out the resources for lent listed here for more ideas. Pick something and go for it!