Weekly Faith Practice
September 11, 2016
CARING CONVERSATION
Set a consistent time – daily – for good conversation as a family or with a friend if you live alone. The dinner table is a good place for these conversations. For this week, ask each member of your family or share with a friend the highs and lows of your day.
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FAMILY DEVOTIONS AND PRAYER
Family devotions can be very simple. After sharing the highs and lows of your day, read a scripture and ask each person at your table (or just before bedtime) a simple question about the scripture. Allow for creative thinking. The scriptures and questions provided here are meant to allow for creativity and insightful thinking. Each day, remember to ask God’s blessing on your meal. We will provide a table grace each week.
At the end of your meal, in the car on the way to soccer, or just before bedtime, pray for one another’s highs and lows, for your family, and for the world. When you have prayed, bless each other. This week’s blessing: You are loved by me and by God. (If you are comfortable, trace the sign of the cross on each other’s forehead or palm as a sensory reminder that you belong to God and each other.)
Table Grace
Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing, thank you, God for everything! Amen.
Day One: Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Question: How can you love someone with all your heart?
Day Two: Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (above) and then see if you can recite it
together and individually!
Question: How can you love someone with all your might?
Day Three: Read Luke 10:27
And Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Question: What is different about today’s reading? What is one way you loved your
neighbor today?
Day Four: Read John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Question: Why did God show love for the whole world?
Day Five: Read John 3:16 (above) and then see if you can recite it together
and individually!
Question: What would happen if everyone believed in God and shared God’s
love?
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FAMILY RITUALS AND TRADITIONS
Rituals and traditions can take many forms. Getting ready for bed, having a special breakfast on a particular day of the week, and all kinds of family celebrations can have a ritual quality (think about that special dish without which it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving!).
What rituals and traditions have you developed in your family that build your family’s faith?
New Faith Ritual/Tradition Possibility:
Plan to attend the RUMC Hoe Down next Sunday!
Bring a side dish to share and an outdoor chair.
Games and time with your faith family at the Harts’ home in Upperco – a great faith family day together! (Details in the bulletin and on the church’s website:
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FAMILY SERVICE
This week ask an elderly neighbor if you may take their trash to the curb on collection day. Be sure that any children in your household have a part to play. Share with your children why you do this to honor God or ask them how this service honors God.
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