Faithful Families Resources August 24 2014

My father didn’t tell me how to live, he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~ Clarence Budinton Kelland

Family Closeness

Game

Letter On

Choose a category of things; it could be food, movies, places. The first person says the name of something in that category. The next person must say another thing in that category that starts with the last letter of the thing you previously said. There is a 10 second limit and nothing can be repeated. 

(from The Source for Youth Ministry)

Sharing

Your best friend doesn’t invite you to her birthday party. How do you feel? What do you say to your friend?

You are on a school field trip and you just found out that a few of the kids have brought along their pocket knives and are planning to carve their name in a tree. Do you tell the teacher? Why/why not? What do you say to your classmates?

Story

With your family read: Romans 12.9-21

 Questions for Discussion:

• What do you think about these rules for Christian living?
• Are doing these things easy of hard? What makes them so?
• How are we to treat others?
• How are we to treat enemies?
• Why do you think followers of Jesus should live this way?

 Prayer and Celebration

Ways to say “I forgive”

At the top of a piece of paper write the words “I forgive you.” Ask “what did God do to show He forgives us?” Then encourage your family to list as many ways as they can which show forgiveness to others. The list may include words and actions. Suggestions of words might be, “That’s ok.” “Its all right.” Suggestions of actions might be hugs, smiles, and handshakes.

Service

Previously my family has spent a day disconnected from technology, prior to making a donation to a charity connected with the famine in east Africa. There are many charities like World Vision who have activities like the Forty Hour Famine that help young people and adults think about what it is like to go without. These are great events but they can at times be difficult for families with young children to engage with. The truth is we shouldn’t need prompting from a charity to help our children think about others.

With my family, we agreed around the dinner table that we would go without technology – tv, computers, games etc – for the day. Now this might seem trivial but the purpose of it was that every time we felt like we wanted to watch TV or go on the computer we remembered that others in the world are going without a lot more than we are, and that we can use what we have to help. Why do this and not just give money? I am passionate about helping my children to grow as thoughtful disciples of Christ and so I want them to engage in a small action of self denial so they can reflect more deeply on what it means to give.

I wonder what creative ways you might engage your children’s hearts and mind so they may grow to love and serve others?

Bonus Family Activity

Hands and Feet

Draw around the outlines of your children's hands and feet onto cardboard. Cut them out and write words on them that might help them to remember how they help Jesus build his kingdom. They might be words like serve, share, love, grow. Alternatively draw pictures of these things or get your hildren to draw pictures of these things. Blue tack or sticky tape them around the house so that they might be reminded throughout the week that they are workers in the kingdom of God. 

(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