Quotes from Catherine Stonehouse

What is spiritual formation? The goal of spiritual formation is a maturing faith and a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, through which we become more like Christ in the living of our everyday lives in the world.

Stories, drama, and other symbols powerfully influence children.

We want our children to obey God because they do not want to cause grief to the one who loves them. As they become aware of their moral failures, we also want them to discover that their loving God forgives and wants to help children to do the right thing. The importance of the initial love relationship with God cannot be overemphasized; everything else in spiritual formation builds on it in the proper time.

In formal education, children are introduced to new ideas about God and must reconcile their image of God with what the teacher tells them about God. As we teach children, at home and in the church, we do not give them our understanding of God; rather, we guide them as they reshape their God in the light of what they learn from us and in their ever expanding life experiences.[19]

To be a good parent or a good Sunday school teacher of children, we do not need to be people who have arrived; God simply calls us to be on the way, seeking, finding, and rejoicing in what we find.

Biblical stories play an important role in the elementary child's search for answers. Coles found that children relate the experiences of biblical characters to the events of their own lives. As children think about these stories, they see themselves in the characters and see God working and relating to those biblical people. Certain stories grab children, inspire their imagination, and draw them to reflect on life, meaning, and God.

Adults must never discourage a child who desires to respond to God. When children know that God invites them to come and they are ready for a response, they do not need severe external pressure. They simply need a setting for response and possibly an adult to guide them, pray with them, and affirm their encounter with God.

As Jean Piaget studied children, he discovered that they were moral philosophers who struggled with good and evil, understanding and applying rules.

At various ages children become aware of different realities of the gospel.

If we truly are created in God's image, we must know God in order to fully know ourselves and who we can be. God has equipped human beings to begin that quest very early,

Can children grasp the full meaning of Christ's coming, death, and resurrection? Can we as adults? No, but awareness of the mystery draws us to explore, wonder, and discover more and more, year after year.

School-age children become storytellers. Not only do they enjoy hearing stories, they can look back over the events of their lives and weave those events together into a story or narrative and, in the process, discover meaning in those concrete experiences.

chose to be revealed through the stories of the Bible, stories of God actively relating to people, and stories of God becoming flesh and living among those people. To know God we must know the stories of God,

Telling or reading Bible stories to children is still one of the best ways for adults to learn the stories for themselves.

Stories are at the heart of faith development for children; stories capture and communicate theology for them.

The spiritual journey is not a path separate from the rest of life, walked by one's spirit. It is the path of everyday living where God meets and walks with us, where we respond to God with our whole developing self. The journey begins at conception and continues until we no longer walk this earth.

children not only remember the facts and sequence of the events in stories but are also able to discover meaning in them.

In the process of helping children prepare to minister and in doing ministry together, important relationships can develop between child and adult. When we know one another and are known, identity builds. Working together with adults, children have the opportunity to follow the example of those adults.

Danger lurks along the paths walked by our children and their parents. If they are to safely negotiate the journey with increasing strength and sensitivity and without suffering debilitating wounds, then wise, committed companions must join them on the way.

Although God respects our freedom of choice and our children may reject grace, I believe their choice is influenced toward God when we give them to God, trust them to grace, and open ourselves to reflect God's love.

When people no longer love God with their whole heart, religious observances with the greatest of potential become only hollow rituals, and the integrity of life and word is gone, draining events of their power to communicate the faith.

The incarnation affirms the importance of childhood.

Biblical stories play an important role in the elementary child's search for answers.

To not be concerned about spiritual formation during childhood is to ignore the very foundations of the spiritual life.