Faithful Families Resources February 28 2016

Appreciate every moment with your children.   Don't wish their childhood away.

One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car you drove, or what kind of house you lived in, or how many books you wrote, or what your clothes looked like.

But the world may be a little better because you were important in the life of a child.

Anon

Family Closeness

Game:

My Grandmothers Trunk.

Someone starts by completing this sentence with an object  that begins with the letter A, My grandmother keeps _____ in her trunk.” The next person completes the sentence repeating the A word and adding a word that starts with B. This continues around the circle, each person repeating what the others said and adding another with the next letter of the alphabet. (Youth Ministry Encyclopaedia. Lyman Coleman. JBCE)

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

• What is the best thing and the worst thing that happened to you this week? What is something that you need to ask God for this week?
• If you could be any character from a book or TV who would you be? Why? What character on TV do you think you are most like? In what ways? What TV character do you think your family members are most like? Who is someone you admire in real life? What is it about them you like?

Story

With your family read:  Luke 15.1-10

 Questions for Discussion:

• What does it feel like to be lost?
• Who might be some people who are lost in our community?
• What does the story say we should do when the lost are found?
• What does it mean to be found by God? 

Prayer and Celebration

We are now in the Season of Lent, the forty days preceding Easter Day. This is traditionally a time of repentance (saying sorry and turning from sin). The resources for prayer and celebration for the next six weeks will focus on ways your family might “celebrate” well this season. Lent is a good time to focus on God’s care and provision and on our dependence on him, but also on saying sorry.

As we journey with Jesus to Easter, let his teachings be in our heads 
and our thinking, our feet and our walking, our hands and our 
serving, our hearts and our loving:
Blessed are the poor in spirit
response: For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn:
response: For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek:
response: For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for what is right:
response: For they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful:
response: For mercy shall be shown to them.
Blessed are the pure in heart:
response: For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers:
response: For they shall be called the children of God.

Jesus asks us to take up the cross and follow.  We pray that as we 
follow, we may become more:
      More loving
      More gentle
      More honest
      More generous
      More friendly
      More forgiving.
      More like what God made us to be.
Lord, as we follow, make us more like Jesus and so
Your kingdom come, your will be done
On earth as in heaven.  Amen

  

Service

One of the profoundest ways that we might share our love of Christ and our love of life with others is not through words but through our loving actions. Here are some suggestions for your family to share with those who live around you.

Invite another family who you are friendly with to church followed by a BBQ.

Bake something for your neighbours – maybe biscuits or a cake. (Do you know your neighbours? Where I live I have had six sets of neighbours on one side in the space of five years.)

When you see people moving in why not invite them over for some food or take a cake or biscuits over to them or some cold drinks.

If you know of an elderly or chronically ill person who is having difficulty with their garden why not get your family to adopt them. That is, regularly as a family go and mow the grass, weed, clean up and maybe plant some flowers.

Family Time

Lenten Placemats

Draw a variety of Lenten symbols on sheets of purple construction paper. These symbols could include a palm branch, a cross, a candle, a crown of thorns, a dove, a bowl, the number 40, loaf and cup, nails, a rooster, a bag of coins. In the middle of the placemat write a Lenten prayer. Cover them with a clear covering such as “contact”. As you eat meals together during Lent, look at each symbol and discuss its meaning. 

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(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning