In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice

By Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

Book Overview

Theologian, mother, and writer Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore gives us some answers to this question and shows us how to integrate and strengthen the practice of faith in the everyday (and often mundane) experience of raising children. In the Midst of Chaos reveals what it takes to find the spiritual wisdom in the messy, familial ways of living. By rethinking parenting as an invitation to discover God in the middle of our busy and overstuffed lives, it relieves parents of the burden of being the all-knowing authority figures who impart spiritual knowledge to children. Finding spirituality in family activities such as reading bedtime stories, dividing household chores, and playing games can empower parents to notice what they are already doing as potentially valuable and to practice it more consciously as part of their own faith journey.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787976768
• ISBN13: 9780787976767
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Spirituality of Parenting

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007) Who will think of parenting as a spiritual practice? Who will think of parenting as being spiritual? For most of us parents, parenting is just basic survival, living day to day. Bonnie Miller-McLemore's book catchy title, In the Midst of Chaos captures the messy aspect of parenting exactly. It also throws a new perspective on parenting. Bonnie is no ordinary mum. She is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Pastoral Theology at Vanderblit University Divinity School. I wonder what it will be like to have a theologian as your mother. In this book, she invites us to "...(by) rethinking parenting as an invitation to discover God in the middle of our busy and overstuffed lives..." Taking the ordinary task and routine of parenting, Bonnie shows us how to be "contemplating in chaos." She invites us to take kids seriously, dealing justly with them, playing the field (x-box, soccer etc) with them, read from Seuss to Scripture and finally to blessing and letting go. This is a good read for parents who are struggling with being parents in the midst of chaos. God, have mercy.