Messages

  • Let’s talk about how we love our children

    “We’re hungry for a chance to talk about our children — and there’s lots to say. The complaints, the dilemmas, the near disasters come first. They’re what’s on top, and we need to talk about them. But the hard times are not the whole story, and, somehow, it’s harder to tell of our love. We’re embarrassed, we’re ambivalent, we’re protective, we’re shy. But our love for our children is so good, so deep, so central to our hopes for a better world. The more of it that can be made visible, the better off all of us will be.”

  • A prayer for Quaker parents

    “Heavenly Father, what precious burden have we dropped to one side in the midst of all our frantic running? Shall we save the world and lose the soul of one untended child? Let thy light shine through our every waking moment, that we and our children may know by whom and for what we are created. Spare us from the blasphemy of taking the weight of the world upon our shoulders.”

  • What we gain by listening to children

    “I think parents need to be aware of how vital it is to leave everything to answer a young child’s reaching out to you to ‘come quickly’: to share a sunset, the beauty of a discovered wild flower, the trick of the pet dog, or to listen with full attention–no matter what seems prior on your agenda–when children burst into the house from school eager to have you listen to a tale of woe or a triumph they have experienced during the day.”

  • Parenting is a spiritual practice

    “God has continually used my two children to raise me out of selfishness and make me more self-aware. Through them, God has taught me about patience, surrender, and self-control, as well as the testimonies of peace, simplicity, and integrity. They have helped me find God, not just in silence and solitude, but in the midst of chaos and crying. While I still have much to learn, I have found that naming parenting as a spiritual practice helps me follow this path more consciously so I can better pay attention to the lessons God continues to send my way.”

  • Children are creatures of the present moment

    “Living in the present moment in radical trust opens us up to discover God’s longings for our lives. Children are creatures of the present moment. ‘It’s mine and I want it now!’ They can be fierce in their desires. In their gentler moments, they guide us to see things we’re in too much of a hurry to notice. They ask us to set aside our work to read to them or leave off our plans to hear their latest knock-knock joke. They want to climb that tree, walk in the woods or wade in the creek. Not tomorrow, today. How much room do we make in our lives for our children’s plans? How much space do we leave for the unexpected?”

  • From a young Friend: Believe in children

    “Quakers want to give youth the chance to explore and know their potential. They also want them to have the confidence that they need. When adults give youth the opportunity they also expect the best from them, by this I mean they should believe in them, encourage them, share with them, trust them.”

  • Parenting as prayer

    “When I go up to kiss my sleeping children and linger with them, in quietness and love, that is prayer. There is a wordless unity of God, myself, my children, a sense of gratitude and reverence, awareness of my need for strength, shame for my failings, a promise to try again.” 

  • Children and Quakerism

    May 2026: Quaker community is intergenerational, and welcoming children of all ages into our spiritual community is a joy. This month has messages for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, members of worshipping communities – anyone who spends time with children. We read about the joy children bring, caregiving through hard times, how children experience spirituality, and knowing when to step back to allow children to grow into their wholeness.

  • What is unique about Quaker parenting?

    “Quakers are good at respecting the rights of the individual, knowing they are human beings at all ages – not acting as if they become so at some point in their lives. Whilst, as older, supposedly wiser, people, we have suggested, refused or insisted – we always explain; even if, in desperation, that’s been ‘Because I’m the parent – trust me!’ There are boundaries and rules set from a mutual expectation of trust and reasonableness.”

  • Children have a divine spark

    “Something of God comes into our world with every child that is born. There is here with the newborn child a divine spark, a light within.”

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