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January/February 2009 -- Priorities
Due Date: February 8, 2008
The new year offers a good opportunity to evaluate what is important. What does the way we live say about what we truly value? What may be getting crowded out of our lives? How does what we see and hear in the world around us confuse our priorities? These may seem like adult questions, but children are at least as subject to the influences of our culture as adults are. Advertising has invaded practically every area of our lives and continually tells us what is important. Popular culture inundates us with images that we're told we should aspire to. How can we help children understand that God's priorities are different than the world's priorities? How do we guide them to prioritize their lives based on their Christian faith and help them to have the courage to stand by their priorities?
March 2009 -- When I'm Mad at God
Due Date: March 5, 2008
Most of us feel uncomfortable, even guilty, about being angry with God. Children experience those same feelings, perhaps even more acutely than adults. All of us, children included, do feel angry toward God at times. What we think of as unanswered prayers, the death of a loved one, or a situation that just isn't fair may prompt our anger. We hope that this issue will help children come to terms with the idea that it is okay to be angry with God. Certainly there is biblical precedent for anger. (Think of Jonah pouting under his plant because God was merciful to the people of Nineveh.) We know that we cannot answer all the whys of the things that make us feel angry with God, but we want to guide children to deal with their anger in faith-filled ways. (Please note: themes such as this often prompt an abundance of stories on the death of a parent or grandparent. While we might include one such story, we encourage writers to consider other subjects.)
April 2009 -- New Life
Due Date: April 3, 2008
The good news of Easter -- Christ's resurrection -- proves that God continues to break into our lives in new and refreshing ways. To look for and recognize God's activity in our lives frees us to live with hope and courage. New life turns despair into hope, sorrow into joy, strangers into a community, hate into love, the wounded into healers, war into peace, and animosity into forgiveness and reconciliation. How does this new life of Easter manifest itself in our everyday lives? How do we find this new life of Easter? This issue should help children to look for, recognize, and celebrate God's continuing activity in their lives and in the world around them.
May 2009 -- My Family Is Weird -- But I Love Them!
Due Date: May 5, 2008
Children are often embarrassed by their families. It may be the location or size of their home, the way Uncle Harry dresses, the fact that a grandparent lives with them and does "funny" things when the child's friends are around, or that a parent shows up at school a little too often. The situations that embarrass a child may seem silly or inconsequential to adults, but they are often a real source of embarrassment and even pain to the child. One of the aims of this issue is to help children realize how common these feelings are. (Everyone's family is a little weird!) Ultimately we hope to help children to appreciate the things that make their families unique and to understand that their families, even if they are a little weird, are gifts from God.
June 2009 -- Loneliness
Due Date: June 3, 2008
In our highly mobile, extremely busy, increasingly impersonal society, many of us have experienced loneliness. Family size continues to decrease, we move away from extended family, and technology encourages us to sit at machines instead of communicating with people face to face. Violence causes us to spend more time behind locked doors, and even in this "safety" we are suspicious of others. Consequently, we find ourselves increasingly isolated from one another. Children do not escape this phenomenon. Perhaps they have difficulty making friends. Perhaps their families are too busy or in too much turmoil to offer comfort and companionship. Perhaps the families themselves are isolated from the larger community. Through this issue we want to help children understand that they are never truly alone, that God is with them always. We want to offer them comfort as well as creative ways to deal with their loneliness.
July 2009 -- Holy Ground -- Meeting God in Relationships
Due Date: July 2, 2008
Moses met God in the burning bush and was told to remove his shoes, for he was standing on holy ground (Exodus 3). Wherever we meet God is holy ground. One of those places is in our relationships. We meet God in the people around us as they try to do God's will. We meet God in our relationships when we receive and give love, when we receive and show respect, when we are accepted by others and treated fairly and when we do the same for others, when we forgive others and show mercy toward them. The focus of this issue is to help children recognize how they meet God in the people around them and to understand how they can be holy ground for others.
August 2009 -- Patience
Due Date: August 4, 2008
We live in impatient times. We are frustrated when we have to wait in line at the store or in traffic. A computer that takes a couple of seconds to load a web page is "slow." Even in church, we become impatient if the service lasts "too long." We expect virtually everything to be instant. Children, who are perhaps a bit more impatient anyway, absorb our sense of impatience and frustration. Yet patience is one of the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). And being on the receiving end of patience is a great blessing. This issue should help children begin to recognize the many ways in which God is patient with us and encourage them to cultivate an attitude of patience with themselves and others.
September 2009 -- Honesty
Due Date: September 4, 2008
It seems that dishonesty abounds these days. Elite athletes use performance-enhancing drugs and lie about it. Students plagiarize papers from on-line sources or use their cell phones to find answers during tests. Indeed, dishonesty is so pervasive that we shouldn't be surprised if our children wonder if telling a lie or cheating is really a big deal. In this issue, we want to help children understand that honesty is the basis for healthy, trusting relationships in every area of their lives and an essential part of the Christian life.
October 2009 -- Peer Pressure
Due Date: October 3, 2008
Peer pressure is one of the constants in children's lives, and it seems to affect them at younger and younger ages. It can influence what they wear, what music they listen to, what TV shows and movies they watch, and, more seriously, whether they develop healthy habits and attitudes. While peer pressure is not always negative-children can influence one another to do good things as well as bad-this issue should help children to develop a strong sense of themselves as children of God, who are always and unconditionally loved by God, even though they may seem different from the crowd. It should also help children identify ways that they can resist temptations when being pressured by peers.
November 2009 -- Blessings
Due Date: November 3, 2008
We hope that an attitude of thanksgiving permeates our everyday lives as Christians. But November, for those of us in the U.S., puts us particularly in mind of counting and giving thanks for our blessings. What does it mean to receive blessings with gratitude? And what does it mean to offer blessings to those around us? What moves us from being happy for the blessings we enjoy to sharing those blessings with others? How does something as simple as sincerely offering or graciously receiving compliments relate to the idea of giving and receiving blessings?
December 2009 -- Joy to the World!
Due Date: December 3, 2008
The December issue of Pockets takes on a life of its own as we turn to Advent themes such as waiting, hoping, journeying, giving, and sharing love, joy, and peace. This issue should help children begin to understand how Jesus' birth, God's incarnation, is made new for them each Advent and Christmas and how this sense of Emmanuel, God with us, guides our lives throughout the year.
Editorial Philosophy
The primary purpose of Pockets is to help children grow in their relationship with God and to claim the good news of the gospel and apply it to their daily lives. Pockets espouses respect for all human beings and for God's creation. It regards a child's faith journey as an integral part of all of life and sees prayer as under girding that journey.
Special Needs
- Articles about real children involved in environmental efforts, peacemaking, and helping others. Please send photographs of these children with your manuscript and indicate the name and address of the photographer. We prefer photos that show children involved in their project, but if those are unavailable, school photos will do. Please enclose parents' permission to use photos.
- One theme-based story for younger readers, ages 5 to 7, per issue. This story should be no longer than 700 words and should follow easy-reader guidelines.
- Interviews with well-known people, relating how their faith in God is important to them in their daily lives. We want to do more articles of this type.
Deadlines
Please note the deadlines for submission. Late submissions cannot be considered.
For More Information about Writing for Pockets
Please refer to our Writers' Guidelines posted on this site.
Annual Fiction Contest
Entries are received beginning March 1 and must be postmarked no later than August 15. Please indicate Fiction Contest on both the outside envelope and the cover sheet. There is no set theme and no entry fee. Stories should be 1,000Ð1,600 words. (Stories shorter than 1,000 words or longer than 1,600 words will be disqualified.) Please include an accurate word count on your cover sheet. Past winners are ineligible. The winner will be announced November 1. Award: $1,000 and publication in the magazine. Entries with an SASE will be returned.
Send All Manuscripts with SASE to:
Lynn W. Gilliam, Editor
P. O. Box 340004
Nashville, TN 37203-0004
Please do not send submissions via FAX or email.
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