Notice What's Around You

Yesterday, I was on a call with some other children’s ministers from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) world. We’ve been checking in regularly during this time so we can support one another and think through how to do ministry in this time of pandemic together.

This week, our focus was on contemplation and how using different contemplative practices can be helpful during this time. We began our time together with an easy way to just check in with yourself (or those around you, if you want to do this with your family or friends).

You simply take a moment to notice what is around you- wherever that may be: your house, your yard, the line at the grocery store, while cooking dinner.

And you take a moment to become a little more still, and a little more aware of your space.

And then, you notice these things:

• 5 Things you can see

• 4 things you can hear

• 3 things you can touch/feel

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

Once you have noticed the space around you, you can share the things you noticed with someone, or just write them down. If you share what you noticed in your space with someone, pay attention to what is shared. We will all have different approaches to what we experience, but the hope is that this practice will allow us to just be where we are.

To take a moment and check-in with our surroundings and what we notice.

Once you’ve shared or written down the things you noticed, offer a prayer for those things and this time and the opportunity to be still.

God, thank you for being with us always. Thank you for the opportunity for us to notice things that maybe we miss as we go about the everyday things of our lives. For the things we noticed today, we give thanks. Help us to notice the world around us with different eyes, open ears, and hearts that are ready to receive what you have for us on this day. Amen.

—
Kristen Koger, Pastor for Children and Families, First Baptist Church Decatur