Summer Family Faith Formation -June 18
Join us each week this summer as a family to celebrate the Fruit of the Spirit!
Pick from watching our Welcome Videos, Worship Together, Reading the Bible, Talk About It, Family Activities, Pray Together and Bless Each Other – or do them all!
Welcome Video
Worship Together
Share in some faith practices of worship together!
Shine a Light: Light a candle or find a flashlight. Take turns saying, “Jesus’ light shines in me.”
Sing Together: Sing or say: The fruit of the spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. With these we show God’s love.
Make an Offering: How can you give an offering today? It could be time, talent, or treasure!
Read the Bible Together
Read this week’s God’s Great Story in the children’s Bible for you child’s age.
Spark Story Bible Fruit of the Spirit or Galatians 5:22-23, Nehemiah 8:10
Frolic Story book: Hal and the Very Long Race by Lucy Bell
Talk About It!
Have fun asking question for all your family members!
What is something that brought you joy this week?
It’s week 2 of our Fruit of the Spirit summer series, and this week’s fruit is JOY! What is joy? You may think it means being happy, but it’s so much better than that. Eating cotton candy can make us happy but it doesn’t last forever (can you imagine if it did??) Birthdays make up happy but that’s only 1 day a year. Joy doesn’t come from things that we get, but from being completely content with who we are and what we have exactly in that moment. That sounds easy enough, so why aren’t we joyful all the time? Because lots of things come and try to take our joy away. Like someone being faster than you, like someone having better toys than you, like being asked to do something you don’t care for. What should we do when that happens, pout? Feel bad about ourselves? Yell at them? Well there you go, poof joy is gone! What we should do is take a moment and say a quick prayer, “God help me find the joy in this.” And that’s when God’s Spirit come to remind us of just how special God made us, that who we are is enough in that moment, and that we are so lucky to get to share that with other. That’s what Hal did in our story. He was reminded that he is pretty great just as he is, and rolled his way into having fun with his friends. So don’t let anything steal you joy, God made you perfectly perfect just as you are!
Digging Deeper (great topics for Upper Elementary): Can you find Nehemiah in your Bible? It’s in the middle-ish part. Long story short, God’s people didn’t listen to God and ended being attack, the city destroy and all the people force to live in exile, YIKES! Well once they got their act together, they were able to go back to their homeland and rebuild. Nehemiah was in charge of overseeing the walls being rebuilt. Well one day when they were digging through the rubble, they found an old scroll of the “Bible” of their day. The priest Ezra began to read it and people stood and listened for hours (can you imagine?!) People were sad that it had been so long since they heard it and sad that they were away so long. But Ezra said “Do not grieve, for the JOY of the Lord is our strength.” What do you think he meant by that? How does finding joy, aka being content with what we have and who we are, help us in tough or sad moments?
Family Activity Choices
Pick activities to do together with supplies you have around your house!
Just Roll with It – go look for some pinecones outside. Pretend the pinecone is a hedgehog, because it looks pretty similar. Add extra fun by trying to add a nose or eyes! Don’t have pinecones, use cotton ball or rolled ups socks. Then have fun rolling them around, down a hill, slide them across the floor. I guaranteed it’ll make you feel pretty joyful!
Pray Together
Do a bubble prayer! Blow some bubbles and then try to pop them (so fun!) For each one you pop, thank God for something that makes you joyful about yourself.
Bless Each Other
At the end of your time, give each other a special blessing to remember one of God’s promises.
Give each other a gentle pinch and says, “You’re super fruity!”