🍁Your Every Season Sacred Care Package

100 Conversation Cards, Daily Prayers, Fall Playlists, and First Chapters!

I know you have a lot going on. While I can’t write you all a handwritten thank-you note for preordering Every Season Sacred, I hope the care package I’ve put together is the next best thing. (Let’s be honest, it’s probably much better than my sloppy scrawl!)

I wrote all 300+ pages of this book for weary people like me and you who want to believe in something bigger than themselves — who want to journey through life with their kids, experiencing the grace of God in their very real, very complicated lives.

Preorder Care Package

We’ve compiled a collection of free gifts to thank you for preordering Every Season Sacred before September 19.

Share your preorder information here to get the following: 

1. 100 Family Conversation Cards: Dive deeper into conversation with those you love (of all ages) with these open-ended questions. These are professionally designed & made to print, but you can keep them on your phone or tablet! (I laminated mine and plan to stash some by the dinner table and some in my bottomless pit of a purse.)

2. 5 Daily Prayers to Share: Turn to this booklet of prayers again and again with your kids of all ages & stages! I wrote these simple liturgies for morning, mid-day, shared meals, evening, and bedtime. (And according to the last newsletter poll, this was a printable you wanted!) I love the little booklet form.

3. Fall Every Season Sacred playlist: I curated an Every Season Sacred playlist just for you as we enter into fall. You’ll find MORE THAN NINE HOURS of sacred and secular music to get you in your fall feelings. (Also, lots of folksy covers and bands that might be new to you, along with some names you might know, like: The Head and The Heart, Caamp, Mumford & Sons, The Porter’s Gate, Sandra McCracken, The Avett Brothers, Josh Garrels, The Lumineers, Jon Foreman, The National, Taylor Swift (maybe you’ve heard of her?), etc etc etc. I recommend selecting shuffle and enjoying your own personal soundtrack for the whole fall season.

4. Early access to the first 3 chapters: You'll get to read the introduction and the first two chapters, just in time for fall. You'll find reflections, breath prayers, conversation prompts, and liturgies for your family to use. Download it and send it to your Kindle, stat! (Or just read on your phone or computer, that works, too.)

Why Preorder?

Why preorder? Publishing is weird! Preorders play a huge role in the success of a book (they help ensure that retailers stock enough and don’t run out!).

When you preorder, you don’t pay until the book actually releases (Sept. 19), and you’re guaranteed the lowest price, as book prices often fluctuate online. 

Great News: You can preorder Every Season Sacred from any retailer!

Cultivating a More Compassionate World

Thank you for preordering Every Season Sacred.

If you resonated with To Light Their Way, I think this book will speak to your soul, too.

I wrote Every Season Sacred to invite you to:

• Embrace the rhythms of the seasons.

• Discover the sacred in the ordinary.

• Build lasting connections that honor the belovedness of yourself, your kids, and the world around you.

• Cultivate a more compassionate and just world for your children and future generations.

A Peek Behind the Worn-Thin Writing Curtain

I’ll get a little vulnerable here: Last night, I exhaled a breath I’d held for a while and texted a few friends an SOS just to say, “I’m trying. And I’m tired.”

(If that doesn’t sum up working & parenting, I don’t know what does.)

I’m trying so hard to steward Every Season Sacred well, and launching a book into this weird world is, well, weird. (A lot of internal and external pressure is bubbling inside my heart and on the verge of boiling over.) I’m trying to figure it out, especially as I parent four kids at home (we don’t return to school until the end of August).

To summarize: I kind of feel like…I’m failing all the way around?

And yet, I have to think of what I’d tell you if you felt like a failure.

I’d say: STOP! NO, YOU ARE NOT! SEASONS OF PARENTING ARE EXHAUSTING! AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO EARN THE APPROVAL OF GOD OR ANYONE! GOD CALLS YOU BELOVED! AND IF NO ONE BUYS YOUR BOOK, IT’S OKAY BECAUSE YOU POURED YOUR TENDER LITTLE HEART INTO IT, AND YOU DID YOUR BEST!

(I speak loudly. And with passion!)

When I was a kid, we sang a song at church to warm up:

Good, better, best

Never let it rest

Until your good becomes your better

Your better becomes your best

That sentiment really…messed me up, I think. I don’t want to pass it on to my kids. I doubt you want to pass that on to your kids, either.

Why is it so difficult to have compassion for others…and heap tons of judgment on ourselves? To think that we can always be better? (Tale as old as time, right?)

Anyway, I know I can assume that people I see on the Internet have bright & shiny lives, never struggle with a never-ending to-do list, and don’t wrestle with all sorts of doubts.

Just in case you had any misconceptions about me, my house is a mess, and I kind of am, too.

And yet, grace abounds.

For me, for you, for all of us.

A Mini Prayer (From Every Season Sacred, Obvs)

Praying this for me, for you, for all of us:

Lessen the pressure

Around us

To perform

Or be perfect

For in You,

All strivings cease.

Bring us fresh purpose

So our nourished hearts

Can grow in You

And so we might live

In a manner

That cultivates

Flourishing for all people.

Amen.

A Prayer for Our Neighborhoods

What does it mean for our families to love our neighbors?

It doesn’t need to be grand gestures aimed at solving the world’s most complex issues. Loving our neighbors can simply look like showing up in the world—ordering extra pizza to share with others, hosting a game of pickup basketball in your front yard, learning the names of those who live on your street, and so on.

This week, join us on the Liturgies for Parents podcast in asking God for help in how to love our local and global neighbors the way Jesus did. May our families be known for cultivating friendship and peace.

Until Next Time

Thanks for allowing me space in your inbox. I appreciate you, for real.

May all your life — your fantastic, dirty, messy, holy life — be a prayer,

Kayla

PS: If you use your prayer booklet or conversation cards IRL, take a photo and tag me (@liturgiesforparents) — I’d love to see and re-share! #EverySeasonSacred