Faithful Families Resources August 25 2013

Weekly Inspiration

You cannot make your children love the Bible, I allow. None but the Holy Ghost can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make your children acquainted with the Bible; and be sure they cannot be acquainted with that blessed book too soon, or too well.

~J. C. Ryle

Family Closeness

Game:

The Cereal Box Game

You will need a large empty cereal box for this game. Each family member takes a turn to pick up the box with their teeth without let anything but their feet touch the ground. After each round a few centimetres are cut off the top of the box and everyone has another go. Keep going until the last person can’t pick up the cereal box. Make sure you do it on a carpeted surface and older family members may need to do some warming up and stretching before trying this.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

This is an appropriate one for Australian’s right now in the midst of a short but tedious election campaign.

• If you were running for Prime Minister/President what things would you want to change about the country?
• What issues do you think should be most important?
• Why do you think politicians don’t always do what they say they will do?

Story

With your family read:  Luke 14.1,7-14

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/all_puffed_up.htm

  

Questions for Discussion:

• Why do you think Jesus told this parable?
• Why do you think humility was important to Jesus?
• Why did Jesus tell the Pharisees to invite the poor to their home?

Prayer and Celebration

Psalm Prayers

The Psalms can be great models of prayer, especially for praise and adoration.

Choose a psalm that expresses this and pray it together with your family. Some good P & A psalms are: 8, 19, 23, 29, 33,47, 48, 66, 84, 96 – 100, 104, 108, 111, 134, 135, 145 – 150.

Family Activity

Family Time Line

To help your family think about good things God has  given you, work together to make a family time line. Draw a line in the centre of a long sheet of paper. Choose a starting date to write at the left end of the line. Your time line may cover a week, a one  month period, or the school holidays, or a year. To help family members think of time line events, ask questions such as: "What was something we did that we really enjoyed? How did someone help us in a special way? Who are some new friends our family made?" Display the time line on a wall or door. Allow younger children to enjoy drawing pictures to illustrate the time line. (Adventures for Growing Families. Wes & Sheryl Haystead.)

(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