Great things are done by a series of small things brought together
~ Vincent Van Gogh
Welcome back to another year with
Faithful Families Resources. I hope that you have had a wonderful and blessed
Christmas and New Year with your family and the ones you love. My prayer for you is that 2014 may be a year of renewal
for you being faithful with your family.
The purpose of
this blog is to provide families with the weekly resources, ideas and encouragement
to be faithful with their family.
Usually these resources will include ideas and activities to encourage: 1.Family closeness 2. Exploration
of the Biblical and faith story. 3.
Patterns of prayer and celebration 4. Service.
These resources
aren’t complicated and the activities are quite simple, but to have any affect
they need to be done. Remember it is often the small daily and weekly rituals
that have the greatest impact on people’s lives. Imagine the impact of a little
bit of the Bible read every night at the dinner table across a year. Imagine
the difference simple but faithful prayers might make in the mind of a child.
I wonder how you
might be faithful with your family this year.
Weekly Inspiration
One
day an expert was speaking to a group of students and on time management
and he used this illustration. Firstly he took out a wide mouthed jar, then he
produced about a dozen large rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time,
into the jar. When the jar was
filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this
jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes."Then he said,
"Really?"
He
reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped
some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work
themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. Then he smiled and asked
the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was
onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good!" he replied.
And
he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started
dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and
the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar
full?""No!" the class shouted. Once again he said,
"Good!"
Then
he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled
to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the
point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said,
"The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really
hard, you can always fit some more things into it!""No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point.
The truth this illustration teaches is this: If you don't put the big rocks in
first, you'll never get them in at all."
I
wonder…what are the big rocks you wish to fit into your family life this year?
Family Closeness
Game
Teeth
Everyone sits around the dinner table and chooses a fruit or vegetable.
Person 1 starts by chanting their
fruit/veggie (eg. Strawberry, Strawberry). Person 2 must then chant person 1’s fruit/veggie
followed by theirs (eg. Strawberry, Strawberry, Broccoli, Broccoli). The next
person would then chant Person 2’s fruit/veggie followed by theirs (eg.
Broccoli, Broccoli, Banana, Banana) and so on. As you go around the table each
person must choose a different fruit/veggie each time and one that hasn’t been
named already.
What makes this game weird and fun is that you can't show your teeth at any point (which you do by pulling your
lips over your teeth). If anyone does happen to show their teeth raise the
alarm by screaming "teeth teeth" and flapping your arms at the player
like wings (making sure you don't show your teeth in the process!).
(Idea taken from http://youthgroupgames.com.au)
Sharing
Questions for
stimulating discussion in your family.
- What is
something you hope to do more of this year?
- What is something
you hope doesn’t happen this year?
- What is
something new you want to try this year?
- What could your
family do together this year that would help you to grow closer?
Story
With your family read: Mark 1.4-11
Questions
for Discussion:
It was not the
practice in Judaism for members to be baptised, only gentiles (non Jews) needed
to be baptised when they joined the faith. What John was calling Jewish people
to do was very unusual. The word repentance often used in this passage means to
turn away from. John was calling people to turn away from their sin.
- What was the
purpose of John’s baptism?
- How is John the
Baptist described in this passage? What words might you use to describe him?
- What do you think
it means to be baptised with the Holy Spirit?
- Why do you think
Jesus got baptised if he had no sin?
- How do you think
Jesus felt hearing the words: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased.”
Prayer and Celebration
12 Types of Prayer
In his book ‘The hour that changes the world’, Dick
Eastman outlines twelve different types of prayer. In this miniseries explore
the many different types of prayer with your children.
Watching
Colossians
4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
For children this type of prayer is about developing
a sense of what things need to be prayed for. Approaching pray from this angle
might include a time of silence when we ask God to show us what things in our
world need our prayer. It could include looking at the news to see what is
happening locally, nationally or internationally and asking the questions: What
should we pray for? How might we pray for it? What does God want for this
situation or person? In this approach to pray the focus is not so much on
praying for these things but in being alert to what is going on and discerning
needs. Take your time doing this, don’t rush and have a good conversation with
your children. This is about broadening their prayer world.
Service
Growing a just, inclusive, sustainable
and diverse world.
This is a great
time of year to make some plans for how you might serve God by serving those in
need. You might begin with prayer asking God to guide your family in how you
might live out the command to love neighbour. Here are some areas you might
think about getting involved in the kingdom of God by helping to grow a just,
inclusive, sustainable and diverse world.
Justice
speaks of a free people with a home to live in, food to eat, clean water to
drink and access to the things needed for life.
The dignity and rights of others are respected and wrongs sought to be
corrected. Where can you help create a more just world?
Inclusiveness
ensures that the gifts and needs of forgotten peoples are remembered and honoured. Such people are those for example who live
with disability, are unemployed or are elderly. How can you help to make a more
inclusive world?
Diverse
communities celebrate the wonderful differences in people as a strength to be
shared and a richness to be enjoyed. How can you help to nurture and support
refugees or those who are different in your community?
Sustainable
communities are the only ones that will survive, where deep respect for life
and our deep interconnectedness leads to fair and life giving stewardship of
the world in which we live. In what ways might your family live in more
sustainable ways?
Family Time
Collage
of Dreams.
Use
photos, words and pictures from old magazines, glue, sparkles etc to make a
collage of the things your family would like to do with their life. This might
begin by each member making a list of 10 or 100 things that they would like to
do in their life…like skydive or write a book or learn
to ride a bike. Alternatively the collage might be about things your family might
like to do this year together. Put the collage up somewhere visible to remind
you of your dreams and plans
(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
