In honor of St. Patty's day here is a great overview of the life of St. Patrick, including the prayer "St. Patrick's Breastplate." This is also worth a read. It's a great article by Julie Clawson bringing awareness to how little there is for children within the emerging church and calling for the emerging church to focus more on it's children.

For while resources continue to amass for adults in the emerging church, very little has been provided for children.  There are few children’s curriculums that encourage, for example, resisting empire.  It’s hard to find brightly colored picture books that explore the Kingdom of God or children’s bibles that don’t chop up the text or impose moralistic interpretations on the stories.  I’ve yet to find resources that don’t limit spiritual disciplines for children to going to church, praying and reading the Bible.  As a parent I would rather my daughter learn that scripture is messy, that following Jesus is an entire way of life, and that believers are to seek justice for the oppressed.  I want her to know that growing our own food and picking up trash is a way of showing God we love him by caring for his creation.  I want her to respect people from other ethnic or religious backgrounds and not be quick to put God in a box.  These aren’t messages she will hear in most traditional church settings.  I’m more than happy to teach her, but I don’t want to have to teach her these things alone – reinventing the wheel at each step."

 If this is a topic that resonates with you I encourage you to check out the article and also check out www.emergingparents.com.

And the last one... This is a TED talk on creativity from the author of Eat, Pray, Love that I found really interesting. I definitely recommend it.

Rejoicing in the journey - Bethany