Lesson 2 - Being a Servant

I love the subtitle of this chapter, "Your Life Work Begins At Home."  We talked with the kids tonight about Miriam's role in serving God and His plan for Moses.  It was an interesting chat on what could have happened to Moses, if Miriam said she didn't want to follow the basket or approach Pharoah's daughter.  (The best was Charlie's guess that the basket could have hit a rock and the Israelites could still be in Egypt today...)

If we claim to be servants of God, then that life work really must begin at home.  It is so easy to let down our guard and attack our family - expecting more of them and less of ourselves than we do with the general public.  We might be quick to serve teachers or friends or organizations.  But our own family?  Well, they can make their own beds or get their own milk.

We have a new verse for this lesson...

Colossians 3:23-24

^“ And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

We've recited this for the kids before a big test or when trying to finish spelling reviews.  But I'm encouraged tonight as we seek to remember this with each other as well.  Instead of ignoring the needs of each other, we can look for those needs and seek to fulfill them, because HE FULFILLS US!  This is my prayer for them this week as they secretly work to meet a challenge we've given them...

The challenge before our next class is to do something nice for your brother/sister WITHOUT expecting anything in return.  Not even a thank you.  If they are seen and they get one, fine.  But they can't seek after one.  One can't make the other's bed or clean the other's room and then wait by the staircase with a "I can't wait for you to see the secret in your room!"  When we meet on Thursday, they will write down what they did to serve our Savior by doing for one another.

  

I'll admit...part of me is expecting "I didn't aim when I tooted."  But I'll give glory to God anyway!


Link to Lesson 2

We're still here!

Well, my lack of postings does not reflect our activities here at home.  Due to scheduling, we had to put off our lesson one night and our plans for starting chapter 2 on Sunday changed at the last minute.  It's amazing how God works these things sometimes.

Our weekend was plain ol' busy...  Sunday night we could tell our family was desperate for some down time.  We crawled into the rec room in the basement, turned off all the lights, and snuggled in to the movie "The Blind Side."  Brad looked at me about 3/4 of the way through and said, "I think God has this for our lesson tonight!"  I agreed and after the movie, we had a great discussion on how God built us to protect each other, look out for each other, and defend each other.  It was a great transition, I believe, into Chapter 2 which will talk about being a servant.  I am grateful that God planted those seeds through a family movie night!

Tonight we plan to start Chapter 2 and I'm excited to see where God will lead this chapter on servanthood.  I would love to see a night of foot-washing with these kiddos...interesting to see how that would turn out.

For now, as we plan, I pray the same memory verse as the kids will...that I'd do "all things as unto the Lord" - planning this class, especially!

Lesson 1 Wraps Up

Tonight we wrapped up the first chapter of the book and had an interesting activity to close it out.  What I really appreciate about this book is that it is written by a sister-brother-sister team.  Though they don't match in age difference, these author-siblings do match our own kids in birth order.  Charlie LOVES that Stephen Mally is the only boy in his family and the middle child.  Charlie thinks Stephen "gets him."  :)  This book is a Godly approach to how we ought to live out not only our sibling relationships, but also our lives for Christ.  Tonight we finished out the chapter by looking at the application - Accept (God's design in your exact placement in your exact family), Thank (God for each sibling and even the things you deem annoying), and Choose (to make things better, have the right reaction, not to say anything when you could, etc...)

When I bought this book this summer at a BRIGHT Lights Conference with Annie (see the Tomorrow's Forefathers page on the right for more information about that), I bought the set that included the book, two coloring/activity books and the DVD.  The kids enjoyed the chapter one activity page with the Bible Drill.  They had to look up the verse listed (which we helped with), read the verse (which we prompted for meaning/application), then write down the word requested in the puzzle.  For instance, they first had to read Matthew 7:8 (in KJV) and write down the second word: every.  Once they completed the puzzle, they discovered the "secret" message was "Every brother and sister is a wonderful blessing from God."  Then we had them look each of their siblings in the eye and say, "_____, you are a blessing to me because ________________."

They seemed to enjoy this activity and it was a moment of tenderness that hasn't come around here too often lately.  It was sweet to watch them appreciate each other - even if they got a bit silly doing it.  You have to let some pride down to tell your "enemy" they are a blessing, right?  Nervous energy is bound to follow.  It was only topped by Charlie's sweet prayer to close.....

"...and Lord, thank You for making this family chain 

and help each of us not to let go of a link."

Isn't that what we should pray for every day?  Thank God for the chain of events He has orchestrated for our day, and rely on Him for the strength to see it all through...I am learning so much from these kids................

Lesson 1

"And he (Rehoboam) did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD."
(II Chronicles 12:14)

Our first lesson tomorrow night will start with a look into the life of King Rehoboam.  No other king had so much passed down to him.  No other king had so much wise counsel surrounding him.  Yet his name goes down as a synonym to "unwise" and "foolish." 

All because he "prepared not his heart to seek the Lord".....  I looked into translations of this verse.  I loved the Holmen Christian Standard Bible which interprets the verse, Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the LORD.  I LOVE that!   Determine in his heart....

Every morning I wake up, determined to do something during the course of my busy day.  I'm determined to drink coffee.  I'm determined to have my family sit down at the dinner table at the same time.  I'm determined to get some knitting in before my eyes fall from exhaustion.

But my determination is simply a rearranging of my calendar into the priorities that my mood has set.  How often do I determine in my heart?  And if I did, would that determination involve little thing like coffee and yarn?

Maybe...but maybe after that fleeting thought, the Holy Spirit would take hold and teach me that determining in my heart means that I won't just do "whatever it takes" to reach my goals.  My heart is HIS, therefore I would be determining for something sanctioned by HIM and empowered through HIM.

And I believe that is exactly what God has stirred up in Brad & I as we determine in our hearts to put our family directly in HIS path.  Please be praying as we guide the kids through a few sections of Chapter 1 of Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends, help them with our memory verse (2 Chronicles 16:9) and take a self-evaluation quiz on our thoughts and reactions toward one another.

Link to Lesson 1 

Link to Self-Evaluation Quiz

Preliminary Work

Well, good morning!

This post marks Day One of a heavy heart for my family.  Brad, my loving husband of 13 years, and myself have realized that regardless of the little pep talks and Scripture verses we through around at the kids, our family still behaves just as the world would expect.  However, we believe what Christ prays in John 17...

John 17:15-17

I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.  (NKJV)

We are called to be in this world, serving and glorifying God as we go.  But we are not of this world.  Watching my children, one would not believe our family holds this standard of Truth.  And that is where the heavy heart comes in...

So, Brad and I have decided to start a Friedl Family Workshop, in which we hold a class-type hour-long session for our family.  We will have a memory verse each week, celebrations for each member of the family, group activities and prayer.  We will also be reading through the book Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by Sarah, Stephen & Grace Mally.

I would invite you to share along this journey with us.  I'll be posting our "lesson plans" for the evening (what can I say - I'm a teacher at heart!) as well as feedback from the kids, ourselves and/or The Word as it becomes clear.  Feel free to adopt this activity for your own family!  If you do, please share what works and what doesn't

In the meantime, I'd ask for prayer...for patience, for wisdom, for guidance as we work to train up our children in the Way they should go.  (Proverbs 22:6)