Sunday, May 31, 2015

Faithful Families Resources May 31 2015


Having a place to go - is a home.  Having someone to love - is a family.  Having both - is a blessing.  ~Donna Hedges

Family Closeness
Game:
Investigator
One family member leaves the room. Everyone else decides on a certain rule to follow when answering the investigators questions. Rules could include: tell the truth when legs uncrossed, tell a lie when legs are crossed; answer all questions with yes, no or I can’t answer that; begin all sentences with a vowel; answer using only five words.

When a rule is decided upon, the investigator returns to the room and starts asking questions to family members. The question can be about anything at all including things they know the answer to.  They continue asking questions until they recognize the pattern. They have three guesses to try and figure out the rule.When the investigator guesses correctly or guesses three times incorrectly, the round is over, and someone else gets to be the investigator.

Sharing:
Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.
Finish these sentences:
  • I feel scared when . . .
  • It’s good to think twice before saying something hurtful because . . .

Story
With your family read Mark 3.20-27, 31-35
(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/we_are_family.htm
Questions for Discussion:
  • Why do you think people were saying bad things about Jesus?
  • What do you think Jesus family wanted when they turned up to see him?
  • Are there times when people need to do what God wants even though their family does not like it?

 Prayer and Celebration
Thank You Board
It is easy for children and adults to get into a rut of praying for the same things every night or week. One way of avoiding this is to create a thank you board. This could be a small white board or piece of cardboard. Each time you pray together encourage your children to think of three things they are grateful or want to thank God for. Write them on post it notes and stick them to the board. The next time you come to pray tell your family to give thanks for three things that are not on the board. In this way the imagination is expanded and we come to realise there is a whole world of things to give thanks for.

Service
Came across this website during the week for people looking for service opportunities for their families:  http://www.govolunteer.com.au/

“GoVolunteer is an initiative of Volunteering Australia and is Australia's first volunteer recruitment website. It is a not-for-profit site that provides free Internet advertising for not-for-profit community organisations looking for volunteers. GoVolunteer provides you with all you need to find out about volunteer opportunities, and helps you make the best match possible between your personal requirements and choice of volunteer work.” (Govolunteer.com.au)

They have a section talking about family volunteering – in it they say: “Family volunteering allows parents, children and other family members to spend time together while contributing to the community and causes they care about. It can be a fun activity that can improve communication within the family resulting in stronger family relationships.”
“A growing trend overseas is for families to volunteer together. Family volunteering can involve siblings, parents, spouse and children. Families can volunteer to help a cause close to their heart.”

Family Time
Build a Family Scrapbook

This is a great activity to get the whole family involved in, including Dad. Create a scrapbook that tells the story of your family from beginning up to the present. There is a wonderful opportunity in doing this to tell some of the important stories of your family, including how mum and dad met, preparing for babies, moving to new home, growing up stories and milestone moments. Use print outs of photos and write key words or ideas around them. This could be a well planned and elaborate project or it could be a slap dash evolving one done of the spur of the moment.

(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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