Weekly Inspiration
“Other
things may change us, but we start and end with family”
Anthony Brandt
Family Closeness
Game:
Draw your family
Everyone will
need a piece of paper and a pencil for this game, as well as a bit of scrap
paper for people’s names. Write everyones name down on a piece of scrap and put
them in a hat. Family members pull a name out of the hat, other than their own.
Each person must draw a picture of the family member they pulled out of the
hat. At the end place all the pictures face down in the middle of the table and
turn them over one by one. Family members must guess who has been drawn.
Sharing:
Questions for
stimulating discussion in your family.
- Are you more like water or earth? Why?
- What do you like the most about your family?
- Would you rather live in a home without electricity or without running water?
Story
With your family read: Mark 1.40-45
Questions
for Discussion:
- Why do you think Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone what he did?
- Why do you think Jesus touched the leper?
- Why did the leper tell everyone when he was healed?
- Have you ever had something happen to you that you just had to tell other people about?
About
the Bible Bit
Lepers were not
supposed to come near to people in case they spread their disease or made
others unclean. Being unclean meant you couldn’t go to the temple to worship
God. This leper comes right up to Jesus with his request. Jesus could have just
spoken and the man would be healed, but he touches him in an act of compassion and love. Jesus tells
the man not to tell anyone, but he just can’t help himself and this leads to
Jesus needing to stay away from towns lest he be mobbed.
Journey
through the Bible
Journey through
the Bible will provide five readings each week you can use in order to get a
good overview of the full sweep of the story of God and His people. There are a
variety of ways you might use these readings. As a parent you might read them
to get a better understanding of how the divine drama unfolds. You could read
them to your children and discuss them. Some are longer than others and might
need to be broken up. It is important that you read them first as some readings
you may feel need to be read in a children’s version of the Bible.
1 Samuel 23 Saul pursues David
1 Samuel 24 David
spares Saul’s life
2 Samuel 5.1-25 David
becomes king of Israel
2 Samuel 7.1-29 The
Lord’s Covenant with David
1 Kings 2.1-12 Solomon becomes king.
Prayer and Celebration
12 Types of Prayer
In his book ‘The hour that changes the world’, Dick
Eastman outlines twelve different types of prayer . In this miniseries explore
the many different types of prayer with your children.
Listening
This is a time of stillness and an opportunity to
listen to what God might have to say to you. Unless we encourage children to be
still and alert to the possibility that God may speak to them they may miss his
words to them. The simplest way to do this is to encourage your whole family to
have a few minutes of silence, maybe with closed eyes. Pray beforehand that God
might speak to members of your family. Take the time to share if you felt God
speak to you in this time. Remind your children that God may not speak to them
in that moment but if they are open to him speaking they may hear him speak in
their heart at another time of day. Children will often ask about hearing a
audible voice. Explain to them that it is much more common for people to hear
God speaking within themselves. It is also important for all of us to make sure
what we hear God say to us is in line with scripture and the counsel of wise Christians.
Service
There are many ways to entrench patterns of
compassion, thoughtfulness and care for others into our family life. Our children should have significant memories
of kindness and generous acts of faithful serving. These should be spontaneous as well as
constructed events. Examples of this include:
Connecting with a local service [aged care home
meals on wheels, service for disabled, animal welfare league, local
conservation group, rural fire brigade, S.E.S. etc etc], volunteering as a
family.Adopting a special person in the community or
neighbourhood and engaging in regular patterns of care.
One organisation that
helps people and families connect with others in the community is FSG.
Their community connectors and host
family programs are particularly good in this area – check out their web page
http://www.fsg.org.au/pages/volunteers.php
Family
Time Extra
Paper Doll Activities
For each family member draw an outline
of a person on a separate large
piece of paper. (If you have large enough paper, lie down on it and
trace around your body.)Each person adds drawings, words and/or magazine
pictures to tell about him or herself. As family members work, comment,
"As a child of God, you are special! The drawings, words, pictures on your
outline show some of the ways God has made you special."
(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison & Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning
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