Hosted each week by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine, Maya Little-Sana and Charlette Preslar, the Faith To Go Podcast highlight themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
Activity Time: Our Family Portrait
Supplies: Paper, Coloring Supplies
Maybe your children have drawn a picture of their family at home or at school. Today, invite them to draw a different picture, one of their whole human family. As they begin, wonder aloud with them who they feel is part of their human family. When they are finished, review the various figures in the drawing, highlighting those people who are not in their immediate family, wondering aloud what makes them feel like they are family members. Make sure to hang it on the fridge when you're done!
Story Time: God's Family
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) I wonder if they are part of the same family.
2) I wonder who is part of your family.
3) I wonder if we are part of God’s family.
4) I wonder how big God’s family is.
5) I wonder how we are all related to one another.
Dinner Time: The Human Family
Below is a prayer with which to start your meal and then discussion questions to explore this week’s topic with your family while you eat.
Prayer-
O God, you created us to be one family:
Look with compassion on the whole
human family;
take away our anger toward one another;
break down the walls that separate us;
help us to love one another as much as we can;
and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, everyone may live together in peace;
through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Questions 0-4 years old
1) I wonder who is part of the human family.
2) I wonder if it is ever hard to be part of a family.
3) I wonder if there are things that make us feel far apart from one another.
4) I wonder how God helps us when we hurt one another.
5) I wonder if God’s family and the human family are the same thing.
Bedtime: Reflections for Children at the End of the Day
During your bedtime routine, invite your children into a time of reflection about their day, maybe by saying, "Did you know that God really wants to know what happened in your day today, and that God is always listening whenever you need to tell God something?" Then continue with these questions:
1) What are some things that happened today that you want to tell God about?
2) What is one happy thing that happened today? What is one sad thing that happened today?
3) Did you see God or feel God with you when those things were happening? Where did you see or feel God when those things happened today?
4) Read to your children this week’s scripture selection, then ask the questions that follows.
Luke 14: 25-33
(read by assigned person)
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me must recognize that they are part of a much larger family of God that includes everybody in order to be my disciple. They must also help others when they are hurting and tell someone when they are hurting. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
Did the story remind you of anything that happened in your day today?
5) What are some things that you want to tell God that you are grateful for today?
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: