Forming Hearts through Stories: A Review of Tending the Heart of Virtue, by Vigen Guroian
In an earlier essay, I lauded the benefits of teaching catechisms to young children. Although I still stand by that piece, I have become convinced that stories—rather than sheer didactic teaching—are central to the shaping of our inner lives, characters, and understanding of God. I suspect that memorizing a catechism without the benefit of a story-formed heart will most likely produce a meager harvest. By God’s design, stories are at...
Motherhood: The Ideal and the Diabolical
Mother’s Day evokes strong emotions, both good and bad. This is partly because, since the Fall, each of our mothers fits roughly into either the ideal type of motherhood or the anti-ideal—the diabolical type—of motherhood. In our annual cultural celebration of Mother’s Day, we tend to elevate the bare position of motherhood itself—as if it is a good in itself—or even just the fact of womanhood (which, perhaps, was not originally a...
Mother Culture: A Reading Life after Kids
At this point in my life, I spend around two hours every day getting my children to sleep for bedtimes and naps. Yes, perhaps there is a quicker way to do it, but for good or ill I have chosen my path. I will refrain from calculating the amount of time I spend preparing meals, cleaning up meals, or completing laundry and the like, lest I grow resentful and let that lie creep in that my time is my own to do with what I please. I will...
Gospel Feasting
Quickly I lay out two small salad plates and two larger dinner plates from my set of sage-rimmed stoneware on the brown woven placemats. I have only a few minutes before the action begins; once my guests arrive, we will barely be able to keep wiggly bottoms in chairs and food on the plates for the brief moment it takes to bless it. I pull out a couple tealights and decide the tin box that holds the crayons will do for a candelabra. I...
Curating Children’s Media: Television in the Early Years
Talking about kids and screen time can immediately produce feelings of guilt or defensiveness for parents. Guilt, because we know how bad screens are for kids—especially when they take the place (as they always do) of more meaningful activities, like outside play, family time, or boredom. Defensiveness, because screens are very difficult to avoid and resist for our little ones; and everyone else is doing it! The discussion of limiting...
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