One of the greatest blessings in my life is two adorable little girls whom I get to call my goddaughters. But although I love being a godmother, I'm still figuring out the nature of the job. I look forward to the day when they're old enough for me to introduce them to my favorite books, take them toy shopping, and do all kinds of other fun things. But I know there's a lot more to godmother duty than that.

Kathryn Slattery shares some helpful tips in this article at Guideposts.com:

Books on the subject are surprisingly hard to find. I also talked to friends, godparents and godchildren alike, to learn from their experiences. And what I discovered was fascinating.

The tradition of god-parenting among Christians is an ancient one going back to the days of the early church, when believers were persecuted—and when life expectancies in general were much shorter than they are today. 

While modern-day believers in America are not persecuted as the early church once was, it could be said that the healthy growth and development of our children's faith is threatened as never before by the cumulative effect of society's ills: widespread divorce; broken homes; rampant materialism; both parents working out of economic necessity rather than choice; lack of parental supervision; parental mental illness; alcohol and drug abuse; parental physical, sexual and emotional abuse; and the desensitization of our children to violence and sex via unsupervised viewing of inappropriate television, videos, movies and the internet.

In other words, kids today need all the help they can get! Over and over I was astonished to hear from clergy and laypeople alike that good god-parenting could make a powerful difference.

Read more here. And if you have any ideas to share from your own godparenting experience, please leave a comment below. I can use all the help I can get, too.

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