Confessions in the Garden of Eden

(Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17, 3:1-8 and Genesis 3:20)

Lord God Almighty,

I confess know how hard it is, to see your child stumble and fall.

o stand by why they make mistakes.

Someone once said the hardest thing in their lives was when when their children were no longer old enough for their parents to solve all of their problems anymore. It started in sixth grade with algebra, and all went downhill from there.

How hard must it have been to watch not one but both of your children take the bite from the apple. Did you cringe and shudder when you watch? Did you put your hand over your mouth so that you wouldn’t interrupt their free will?

Was it then you started planning how to set them on their own, to learn what they had to know? Was it before, during or after that you realized you could at least clothe them in love before you sent them on their way?

Lord, I know how hard it is to balance free will and responsibility. I confess that we do not always practice it well when we see others making decisions. How often do we just want to swoop in and judge or try to put our ideas onto others’ lives. Forgive us we. pray.

Help us to find the right balance with all kinds of people: those in power, those with all of their needs met, those who struggle with addiction, those who are hard working yet poor, those who are confused or uncertain or unable to take on too many responsibilities.

Teach us to be family, to love and clothe one another. Teach us to keep safe boundaries and practice responsibility. And, always, always, teach us to practice grace we pray in your son Jesus Christ’s name, we pray.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times. View all posts by katyandtheword