The Liturgies of a Child’s Life

In a wonderful article that I wish I had read when my daughter was younger, Graham Scharf explains the importance of the vocation of parenting a young child :

For the past four years, I have taken my now-seven-year-old daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a weekly class called Start with Art. A friend recently asked me, “Do you think she’ll remember those trips to the Met when she is older?” The answer is, I don’t know. However, I do know that those repeated early experiences will shape how she sees and enjoys the world around her for the rest of her life, because early childhood is to this life what this life is to eternity. Though we may remember very little of it, early childhood experiences shape our ability to understand, enjoy, and embrace our Creator and His good creation. In a similar way, though “the former things shall be forgotten” in the age to come, yet this life of faith will shape the capacity of our souls to enjoy God to all eternity.

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