But often when our hands are busy doing something like gardening, chopping vegetables for supper, or quilting, it frees our mind to think over problems and come up with creative solutions.

So I believe that open-ended work with art materials can teach us – and our children – to trust our own ways of seeing the word, which can make us receptive to new ideas and can help us to see God in all kinds of experiences.

Open-ended work with art materials means that when you work with the materials, it is not with a definite outcome or project in mind. For example, you and your child may each want to sit down at the kitchen table with a tennis ball sized piece of clay. To start, you may ask your child to think about something good that happened today. Think about something good in your own day as well. As you and your child think about the events, express your feelings in your own piece of clay. Press it, pound it, shape it, while feeling the clay. Stop to look at the clay from time to time, but don’t worry about whether what you are making looks “right.” And don’t make any judgments about what is made out of your piece of clay – or your child’s. Just experience working with the clay as a connection with your spiritual side.

If your child shows you his or her clay, just make a non-critical comment like, “Hmm I see a round-ish shape.” or ask “How did you feel when you were working with this clay?”

Use of art materials in this way can foster creative thinking skills and new ways of approaching the world. The creative thinking skills I’m talking about are things like being able to imagine a diverse range of possibilities when solving a problem or having the courage to try something new.

Creative moments are vital to every thing we do in any area of life – in family relationships, work, and community. We may think we are not creative, but creativity occurs whenever we modify a recipe, find a new way to inspire a colleague, or come up with the right words to stop a quarrel within our family. Creativity is an important attribute to encourage in our children, because when the Creative Spirit stirs, it animates a style of being. When our children operate from a creative center, they will experience a lifetime filled with the desire to innovate, to explore better ways of doing things, to bring dreams into reality, and to bring the kingdom of God a little closer to us all.