Faithful Families Resources October 13 2013

Weekly Inspiration

Fathers and mothers ... you may send them to the best of schools, and give them Bibles and Prayer Books, and fill them with head knowledge:— but if all this time there is no regular training at home, I tell you plainly, I fear it will go hard in the end with your children's souls. Home is the place where habits are formed; — home is the place where the foundations of character are laid; — home gives the bias to our tastes, and likings, and opinions. See then, I pray you, that there be careful training at home.

 ~J. C. Ryle

Family Closeness

Game:

Tag team drawing

Each family member gets their own colour felt pen and a piece of paper. Players have 30 seconds to begin drawing. You might like to set a timer. When the time is up everyone passes their paper clockwise to someone else. The paper can be turned one quarter at this stage. Everyone then has thirty seconds to continue the drawing. Keep passing around until everyone has drawn on each piece of paper or until the drawings are done.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

• If you could only eat three foods the rest of your life, what would they be?
• If you could stay up all night, what would you do?
• What is one thing you could have done better today?

Story

With your family read:  Luke 18.1-8

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/persistence-in-prayer.html

  

Questions for Discussion:

• Why did the judge finally give the woman what she wanted?
• Do you think Jesus was saying we need to pester God for him to answer our prayers?
• The last line suggests we can trust God but wonders if God can trust us? What do you think?

Prayer and Celebration

Centre of attention

On a particular day of the week, pray for one person in your family, around the dinner table. Pray for different family members on different days. Ask that family member what they would like prayer for. Get them to tell everyone about their day or week in detail and make sure everyone listens closely.

Family Activity

Feed Ducks…or other animals

There is something very enjoyable and calming about feeding ducks. Take the family to a local pond…but before you go make sure you have the right food. Sometimes you can buy this from pet stores. The same goes for feeding magpies and other insectivores. While it is probably best (for them) not to feed them, you can get information online on the right food to give them. I frequently have kangaroos sitting on my footpath (this is true but not common in Australia) and although I would love to feed them they never stay long. Again like all native animals it is best to check online for the right type of food to feed them.

(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