“Are these all the sons you have?” –Samuel to Jesse, in 1 Samuel 16:11 Despite the instruction that Samuel has from God to disregard the outward appearance of the sons of Jesse, he easily defaults into the cultural expectations and prejudices of his day. Eliab was the first son to pass by Samuel and God …
Tag Archive: hope
Mar 26
Intermountain Moment: Stacey’s Safe Space
Recently, one of our cottage therapists gave an assignment to Stacey, a young girl in her care. She asked Stacey to draw a picture of her “safe space.” This had the potential to be a very difficult assignment, as Stacey had endured a significant amount of adversity and relational turbulence in her life. However, after …
Dec 05
Flashback Thursday: Managing holiday expectations
CLICK HERE FOR A BULLETIN INSERT ABOUT MANAGING HOLIDAY EXPECTATIONS While far from ideal, my childhood provided me with great memories of the holidays. I recall special days of decorating cookies with my Aunt Shirley, sharing a bowl of homemade Chex mix with my Grandpa Haughee while watching football, candlelight services at church, and …
Jul 30
IM Moment Video: Perseverance and finding joy while working with challenging children
In this post, I thought it would be good to share a pair of clips from conversations I had with Steff Turner and ML Rutherford, two key leaders at Intermountain in Community-based Services and Residential Services. Together, they represent decades of experience in working alongside parents, foster parents, grandparents, educators, therapists, and other caregivers to …
May 08
Intermountain Moment: 17-year old Kevin
“Kevin” recently returned to public school after serving a sentence in residential treatment for sexually abusing another child. The director of Intermountain’s school-based-services says that everyone was afraid of Kevin: the schools, his probation officer, his therapist. Even experienced staffers at Intermountain were afraid of Kevin. However, Kevin was what people call a “paper monster.” …
Nov 28
FREE resource! Children’s object lesson for the first Sunday in Advent, Year C
The rest of our Children’s Advent Lessons (Year C) can be found by clicking this link! Objects needed: A seedling, branch, or picture of stump/seedling/nursery log Theme/Main Idea: Even when things seem hopeless, God gives us hope. When nothing is left of the tree but the stump, there is still life there… just waiting for …
Sep 13
Finding healing after trauma: Elizabeth Smart (courtesy of Goalcast)
One of the most common questions I get from the trauma-affected children I serve is, “Why did God allow [insert really awful, tragic experience] to happen to me?” I imagine it’s a question that most pastors, ministers, chaplains, and those Christians who share their faith with others face. It’s fundamentally a relational question, not a …
Jun 10
Coming back to ‘The Wall’: building resilience by learning to trust
Recently, we did an object lesson as part of our Resilience-based series that I call “the Wall.” We talked about how bad things happen in this world despite having a loving God that looks over us. We make bad choices at times that hurt us, and others make bad choices that hurt us. In general, there …
Apr 27
Flashback Friday: A trauma-informed reading of Cain and Abel
NOTE: Having spent a good portion of the last year focusing on trauma-informed ministry interventions, trainings, and writing resilience-based curriculum, I was drawn back to this post from April 2017. I hope you enjoy this “flashback!” –Chaplain Chris + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Maybe …
Apr 19
Intermountain moment: when a child engages in self-harm or other scary behaviors
Cutting. Self-harm. It is a phenomenon much more common (it seems) today than twenty-two years ago when I entered children’s and youth ministry. It’s certainly not uncommon behavior in the emotionally disturbed children that Intermountain works with. That’s why I felt it was important to share a little with you from a conversation I had …
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