Faithful Families Resources January 5 2014

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Family Closeness

Game:

Free Scrabble

This game uses the scrabble pieces but not the board. Everyone starts with seven tiles. It is played like Scrabble but players put words directly on the table. The first person to run out of tiles yells “pick two” and everyone takes two more tiles. During the game, you can rearrange the tiles laid out but you can’t remove any. Playing continues until someone uses up all their tiles and there are no more remaining in the pile.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

• What would you like your friends to say about you?
• What would you like your parents to say to you?
• What is the most encouraging thing anyone has ever said to you?

Story

With your family read: Matthew 3.13.17

 Questions for Discussion:

• Why do you think Jesus wanted to be baptised?
• How did John the Baptists feel about baptising Jesus?
• What happened when Jesus came out of the water?
• How do you think this would have made Jesus feel?

Prayer and Celebration

Squeezy Prayer

The squeezy prayer is one of the easiest ways to pray in a group. Everyone holds hands in a circle. An adult will begin the prayer. When they have finished they  squeeze the persons hand next to them to show it is there turn. They  may pray out loud, or silently, or may squeeze on to the next person.  When the squeeze has reached the starting person they may say another closing prayer or just: Amen.

Here are suggestions for ways of using the squeezy prayer:

•  Using a squeezy prayer ask God for something that is needed in the world…like peace,or understanding or for help in a particular problem in the world. 
• Using a squeezy prayer say thank you for a good friend or friends. Say them by name and even say something you like about them.
• Using a squeezy prayer say thank you for something that you are good at. A gift God has given you.

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.

Family Time

Learn something from your children. It could be anything like getting a lesson about the instrument they learn at school, playing a computer game they are good at, some skill they know. Become your child’s student for a while and discover what they can teach you.

(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