Spiritual Preparation
Part of Virtue Ethics
Welcome to Virtue Ethics! Because it is important to start as you mean to continue, set aside time for your own spiritual preparation. Decide if you will prepare alone or with co-facilitators... or both. Find a comfortable location where you can spend several minutes undisturbed.
Practice a bit of creative visualization for the program: Imagine yourself leading the workshop activities with a group of youth. Do you know any of the youth? Have your previous experiences with them been positive? If so, remember what that was like. If not, go ahead and remember the difficult interactions, too; avoiding thinking about these times will not make them go away. Now, envision yourself sharing positive interactions with these youth. How will that happen? Are you more knowledgeable about their ways, or more flexible in how you might respond? Have the youth matured or changed? How will you relate to new youth, especially youth who are new to the congregation? How will you relate to parents and caregivers? As any other situations in our lives, you will have many decisions to make while facilitating this program. Some of your decisions will not work well. Acknowledge that, and forgive yourself in advance. Some of your decisions will be great!
Feel how uplifting it can be to feel connected to a group of energized, inquisitive youth and adults. Carry that feeling forward as you start this new adventure. Blessings!