Faithful Families Resources November 25 2012

At the end of this week we enter the season of Advent, a time that is focussed on waiting with anticipation. We wait with anticipation for the return of Christ, we relive in our own lives the expectation of the birth of Christ and his birth in our own heart every day. We wait with anticipation for the kingdom of God to be fulfilled on earth. Over the next four weeks the material will be shaped around four themes that are relevant to this time: promise, waiting, journey and gift.

In addition to the weekly resources have a look at the special Advent  page (over at top right) for some ideas and resources on how to celebrate the season well in your home.

Weekly Inspiration

Let God's promises shine on your problems. 

~Corrie Ten Boom

Family Closeness

Game:

Pay Off

This simplified version of pay off can be played with any number of family members. Everyone needs a red token or piece of paper and a black token or piece of paper. Family members will get points depending on what token they and others show. At the start you decide on how many rounds you will play. It should probably be at least five. Family members decide which token they will show but not let other family members know. On the count of three everyone will place their token on the table at the same time. Points are awarded in the following way:

• If everyone puts down red – everyone loses two points.
• If some family members put down red and some put down black – those who put down black get 2 points, those who put down red lose 2 points.
• If everyone puts down black – everyone gets 2 points.

Only have discussions after every three rounds about what you put down or to make promises about what you will put down next go. This could be a good source of family discussion about promises and keeping them.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family. 

• What are the biggest promises people make in their life?
• Why are some promises hard to keep?
• How do you feel if someone doesn’t keep their promise?
• What do you think God has promised us? 

Story

With your family read Luke 21.25-31

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/waiting_and_watching.htm

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you think this reading is about?
• What might it mean for the kingdom of God to come near?
• What signs do you see that seasons are changing? 

Prayer and Celebration

This week take a look at the special Advent page to get some great ideas for celebrating this season. Most of the ideas will require some preparation.

Service

The AdventConspiracy website provides a great way to think about Advent with the charge to : Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More and Love All. It encourages us to think about how we might reshape the time that leads to Christmas in a life giving and countercultural way.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Family Time

Begin thinking about how you might do something really special together as a family for Christmas. How might you really spend quality time together, how might you truly give of yourselves to one another. Throughout this blog there are hundreds of ideas for spending time with your family. Find something special and enjoy the time.

(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

Faithful Families Resources November 18 2012

Weekly Inspiration

The Family - “That dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.”

~ Dodie Smith

Family Closeness

Game:

King of the Table

Everyone at the table gets an empty plastic  cup and places it to the side of them – this is their throne. Screw up some pieces of soft paper into small balls that will fit inside the cups (cotton balls could also be used as an even gentler option). Make sure you have plenty - maybe ten each.  On the count of three everyone begins throwing their paper trying to get it in each other’s cup. The cup can’t  be defended. As soon as someone's cup has paper in it they must turn it over. Whoever is  the last to have their cup still empty is the King or Queen of the Table.

Sharing

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family. 

• What would be the best thing about being king or queen?
• What would be the worst thing about being king or queen?
• What would a good king or queen be like?
• What would a terrible king or queen be like? 

Story

This Sunday is celebrated by many churches as ‘Christ the King’. It is the last Sunday in the church’s year before the season of Advent, a special time of waiting and preparation for the birth of Christ and his return. Apart from the reading listed below, you might like to read some of the other passage where Jesus uses the image of a king in his parables. Try Matthew 22.1-4 and Luke 19.11-26 

With your family read John 18.33-37

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/crown_him_king.htm

  

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you think Jesus meant by “my kingdom is not of this world?”
• What did Jesus say people who “belong to the truth” do?
• What kind of king is Jesus?

Prayer and Celebration

Praise to the King

In this week when we celebrate Christ the King focus on prayers of praise and adoration. Have your family think of all the wonderful things they would want to say about God and put these in a prayer. In 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 King David prays a prayer of praise to God.

“Praise be to You, O Lord,

      God of our father Israel,

      from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power

      and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

      for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.

Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom,

      You are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from You;

      You are the ruler of all things.

In Your hands are strength and power

      to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give You thanks,

      and praise Your glorious name.” (NIV)

Family Time

King or Queen for a Day

This might best be done in the holidays when there is some time to spend. Let each of your family members, including parents, be king or queen for the day. This might begin with a crowning in the morning along with breakfast in bed. The king or queen doesn’t have to do any chores on this particular day, the rest of the family look after them. Let the regent choose what games and activities the family might engage in for the day as well as what food they might eat. It is important that some family guidelines are set for this so that it remains a fun game and not something that might turn children into “bossy little emperors”. At the end of the day during dinner talk about the experience of being king or queen for the day. What was good about it, what wasn’t so great.

(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

Faithful Families Resources November 11 2012

Weekly Inspiration

Acting is just a way of making a living; the family is life.

~ Denzel Washington

Family Closeness

Game:

Table Olympics – Part 3

The Olympics finished in London earlier this year but I always have my best ideas…or at least ideas, three months after the event. So over the next few weeks I bring the Olympics to your table with some simple Table Olympics Games. If you have any ideas I would love to see them.

Egg and Spoon Relay Race

Boil an egg (or not if you enjoy a mess) and pass it around the table from teaspoon to teaspoon. The main rule is no extra hands are allowed to touch the egg or spoon and you must stay seated.  Time your family and see how fast you can go. Try to beat your record. To add some difficulty and time have family members go around the table and back to their place before passing on the egg to the next person who does a lap of the table.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

• What is something you are looking forward to?
• What is your favourite thing to daydream about?
• If you had three wishes what would you use them on?

 Story

With your family read Mark 13.1-8

Questions for Discussion:

• What was it that impressed the disciples about the temple?
• Why do you think they were interested in Jesus comments?
• What do you think Jesus is trying to tell the disciples?

Prayer and Celebration

Prayer Wall

Create a permanent prayer wall in your home. Select a suitable space and use it to place all the things connected with your families prayer life on it. Make a nice banner for your prayer wall and decorate it. Put post-it note prayers on it, or prayers drawn by your family. Stick photos of family members or friends on it to remember to pray for them. Stick newspaper articles of issues you want to pray for. Make sure you clean it up with your family regularly so you have more room to post stuff.

Family Time

Family Book Club

Start picking a book that everyone in your family can read. The book might be read individually for maybe time could be set aside for the whole family to hear the book together. Some great books to read might include those of Dr Suess (short) or Roald Dahl (long). Both these selections probably date me and there are probably lots of newer books that are equally great. As you read together discuss the story and characters, the challenges they face and the values they express.

(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

Prayer and Celebration Collection

I have added a new permanent page (over on the right) which draws together all the ideas for prayer and celebration posted over the last eighteen months. It sits there with the page containing many of the table games posted in that period as well. These will be updated periodically to provide an easy reference point for people looking for specific things.

Many blessings

Stephen

(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

Faithful Families Resources November 4 2012

Weekly Inspiration

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that Sunday School is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Family Closeness

Game:

Table Olympics – Part 3

The Olympics finished in London earlier this year but I always have my best ideas…or at least ideas, three months after the event. So over the next few weeks I bring the Olympics to your table with some simple Table Olympics Games. If you have any ideas I would love to see them.

Table Volleyball

All you need for this game is a blown up balloon. How you play depends on how many people you have in your family. If it is only a few then work as team to see how many times you can hit the balloon to keep it in the air without hopping off your seat. No person is allowed to hit it twice in a row. Alternatively play volleyball across the table. Each side of the table is its own team.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family. 

• How do you think your friends would describe you?
• How do you think your family would describe you?
• How would you like to be described?

 Story

With your family read Mark 12.38-44

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/widows_mite.htm

Questions for Discussion:

• What does Jesus say about people who like to show off and have special treatment?
• Why was what the widow put in to the treasury worth more than the rich people?

Prayer and Celebration

 This week learn a new prayer off by heart, together. Write or find a prayer that you can use with your family every night at mealtimes and family sharing times. The prayer does not have to be complicated, but simple enough for everyone to remember. It might include some lines of thanks or praise or asking. Here is on prayer you might learn together.

Lord, behold our family here assembled.

We thank you for this place in which we dwell,

For the love that unites us,

For the peace accorded to us this day,

For the hope with which we expect the morrow;

For the health, the work, the food and the bright skies

That make our lives delightful;

For our friends in all parts of the earth.

Amen.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Family Time

Show and Tell Night

Get each of your family members to share something. It could be a picture they like, a hobby or interest, something they have learned, a joke or story, something they have made or made up, a game or something they found in the back yard.

(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

Faithful Families Resources October 28 2012

Weekly Inspiration

The family circle is the supreme conductor of Christianity.

~ Henry Drummond

Family Closeness

Game:

Table Olympics – Part 1

The Olympics finished in London earlier this year but I always have my best ideas…or at least ideas, three months after the event. So over the next few weeks I bring the Olympics to your table with some simple Table Olympics Games. If you have any ideas I would love to see them.

Bean Racing

Give each family member a straw, a cup and ten dried chick peas. The aim of the game is be the fastest to transport your chick peas around the table and into your cup. This is done by picking up the chick pea on the end of the straw using suction, carrying it around the table still attached to the straw and not using hands to hold the chick pea and dropping it into the cup in front of your place. Each person does this with their ten chickpeas while another family member times them. Whoever is the fastest gets the gold. If a chickpea is dropped mid journey it must be sucked onto the straw before continuing.

Sharing

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

This week ask your family members:

• What movie or book character would you like to be like?
• When they answer ask them – what is it about that person that they want to be like?

Don’t let your family get away with an easy or silly answer, dig deep to find the truth.

Story

With your family read Mark 12.28-34

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/rules_to_live_by.htm

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you think it looks like to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength?
• What kinds of things might this mean doing?
• Why do you think Jesus said this is the most important commandment?
• How do you love your neighbour as yourself?

Prayer and Celebration

 Fishing for Prayer' Net

This is something your family can use to pray for one other or for people you know. Get or make a fishing net and stick one end on the wall. Make and cut out little paper fish for your family to write things down they want prayer for. Stick them onto the net so other family members can read them and pray. One way to use this would be to take a fish away when you are going to pray for the thing on it. Alternatively the fish could be left up for a week and then cleared on a particular day when your family prays for all those things.

Family Time

15 Minute Fun Burst

Make a commitment to spend at least 15 minutes a day doing an activity your children choose. Too often the busyness of life means we end up not doing anything special with our children.  Make the commitment to your children and put them in charge of deciding what to do. Make it a priority in your day.

(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

Faithful Families Resources October 21 2012

Weekly Inspiration

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

 ~ Chuck Swindoll

Family Closeness

Game:

Table Olympics – Part 1

The Olympics finished in London earlier this year but I always have my best ideas…or at least ideas, three months after the event. So over the next few weeks I bring the Olympics to your table with some simple Table Olympics Games. If you have any ideas I would love to see them!

Spoon Balancing

I am always amazed when I watch the gymnasts balancing on the beam or catapulting across the mat. In this Olympic event get your family members to balance tea spoons on their fingers or nose. See who can balance a spoon for the longest or while moving their hand around in complicated patterns. See if your family can come up with any gymnastic like hand and spoon tricks.

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

In this week’s family sharing time try to come up with a motto for your family.  Your motto can act like a family mission statement helping you to stay focussed on what is important. It could be something that your family aspires to be like, or do,  “We help one another” , or it could be a description of your most important values, “Honesty, Love, Service” or some aspect of what you as a family need to work on, for example: “Love More”.  Don’t rush you motto, spend some nights talking it out over the family dinner table. When you have come up with something you all love and agree on print it up on some nice paper and have it framed so it is in a place you can all see and be reminded of. (Send a message telling us what your family motto is.)

Story

With your family read Mark 10.46-52

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/i_want_to_see_jesus.htm

Questions for Discussion:

• Why do you think people told blind Bartimaeus to be quiet?
• Why do you think he ignored the people?
• What did Jesus do for him?
• How would you describe Bartimeaus?

Prayer and Celebration

Balloon Prayers

There are two ways you might use this idea to pray. Both involve writing words in permanent marker on a balloon. The first way involves your family writing one or two words naming the things or people they wish to pray for at different places over the balloon. When you have finished doing this toss the balloon around the dinner table. The words that your hands touch or are near to when you catch the balloon are the things that you must pray about. The second way uses the same method but instead of things to pray for write down different types of prayer like: praise, thanksgiving, asking, confession, waiting. Whatever your hands land on that is the type of prayer your family must do – this probably works best if everyone takes turns at each individual type of prayer.

Service

One really interesting way to get your family involved in service is to go on a volunteering holiday. By doing this your family can go somewhere different, meet new people and get involved in making a difference in the world. Organisations such as http://www.volunteerholiday.com.au  arrange and oversee the trips and provide guides and other necessary information.

Family Time

Music Night

Have a music evening together where you take turns at picking songs and listening to them. Family members share with one another, what they like about a particular song and how it makes them feel. To take it a step further get everyone up and dancing to the different songs. Remind you family that although they may not like all the music it is good to learn to appreciate other family members tastes.

(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