Calling spiritually-inclined parents and members of mixed faith households: You’ll be interested in an article I just wrote for Beliefnet’s “Spiritual Parenting Week” package. They called it “A Christian Mom Makes a Bar Mitzvah,” and it’s about how I have raised my sons in my husband’s faith. Here’s the beginning of the piece:

It’s a thing good I’ve had thirteen years to prepare for what’s coming: I will be the beaming Christian mommy of a bar mitzvah boy this May 26th.

While my teen-to-be is memorizing his Torah portion, I’m gathering bar mitzvah tips from any Jewish mom I can stop on the street. I’ve been to only two bar mitzvahs in my life, so I don’t have much experience.

Still, I have set some goals: I want the bar mitzvah ceremony to be memorable, meaningful, imbued with gratitude and love. I want the whole day to be authentically ours, as well as in keeping with what millions of Jews have done before us. I want to bring myself, as a supportive non-Jewish parent, to the table…or to the Torah, proud of my son and his Jewish heritage. I want to show that Jewish-Christian intermarriage won’t complete what Hitler started, and that, at our house at least, faith breeds faith, and love is all that matters.

Read the rest here.