You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a
merry-go-round will wave at her parents every time around – and why her parents
will always wave back.
~William D. Tammeus.
Family
Closeness
Game:
...a few of my favourite things
Everyone at the dinner table says five of their
favourite things. This could be a
favourite colour, number, tv show, movies, animal, friend, toy, food,
book. The following night you can test your memory and see if you can remember
the 5 favourite things that all the family members told you the previous
evening.
Sharing:
- If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? Why?
- What is the bravest thing you have ever done?
- Have you ever wanted to grow up faster? Why? What is good about the age you are now? What would be good about being older?
Story
With your family
read Matthew 16.13-20
Questions for Discussion:
[In this reading Jesus asks his disciples who they
think he is. This is done against the backdrop of the region of Caesarea
Philippi which had numerous temples to different religions including one to
Ceaser as God. In this passage we hear Jesus refer to himself as ‘Son of Man’ a
phrase he often used to refer to himself.]
- What is the first question Jesus asks?
- Why do you think he wants to know what others think of him?
- What is Jesus second question?
- Why do you think he asks his disciples this?
- How does Jesus respond when Peter gets it ‘right’?
- Why do you think Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone who he is?
Prayer
and Celebration
Intercessory Prayer
A useful image used
for intercessory prayer is a stretcher.
From Mark 2.3-12, some people lowered their paralytic friend through the
roof into the presence of Jesus. This is
a good image of the work of intercessory prayer. That is, don’t labour too hard with the words
to use, simply do the hard work of
placing or ‘lowering’ the person into the presence of Jesus.
Place on the
stretcher, someone you know who needs help.
Silence
Lower on the
stretcher someone who you can love better this week.
Silence
Put onto the
stretcher a place that needs peace.
Silence
Put onto the
stretcher one who needs healing.
Silence
Put on the stretcher
a hope of yours for your life.
Silence
Lord in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Service
At the moment we are confronted in the news with images of people struggling
in Syrian refugee camps. Considering the luxury that so many of us live in, I
want to encourage you to dig deep to help those who are not in a position to
help themselves. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in a situation
like that. There is nothing more I can say on this except we who have need to
use our abundance in whatever way we can to help. There are many charity
organisation out there taking donations for this crisis so lets do what we can.
Bonus
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 and 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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