Family Meals

Family meals are crucial.

There are countless reasons why family meals are important, but I believe the number one reason is because it builds family relationships. All throughout Scripture, we see the value of "breaking bread".

Meals are not just about the food that's eaten, but about the fellowship that happens. It's about praying together, talking about our days, and extending love and respect to each other.

Whether it is a homecooked meal from scratch, a semi-homemade meal, sandwiches, cereal, takeout, or even eating in a restaurant, again, it's not about the food, but about being together.

Whether it is breakfast, lunch, dinner, a holiday feast, or a quick snack, it's not about the time of day, it's about the quality time.

Something fun that we like to do at our family meals is a game called "High/Low". Basically, you share the best part of your day ("high") and the worst part of your day ("low"). This is a simple yet deep game that gives everyone a chance to share what is going on with them. It also affords an opportunity to praise God for our "highs" and pray to God about our "lows".

We have also done devotionals at the table. A great resource for this is Adventures in Odyssey Meal Time Devotions.

It's great because it has:
A Mealtime Prayer
An Appetizer, which gets the topic rolling and asks a question
A Main Course, which is Scripture reading
Table Talk, which is more questions
Vitamins and Minerals, which is a Scripture verse (you could encourage them to memorize)

How do you prioritize family meals?
What do they look like?
Do you do anything fun or unique at meals?

Praying for Our Children

There is no greater impact we can have on our kids than prayer. There are countless books and resources on praying for our kids. I have no doubt read and used most of them throughout the years.

Some of my favorite resources are:

The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian

Praying the Scriptures for Your Children by Jodie Berndt

Additionally, I just took our Family Mission Statement - https://mightyacorns613.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-family-mission-statement.html - and turned it into a Daily Prayer Guide.

Appreciation

D.L. Moody said, "Character is what a man is in the dark."

Instilling Godly character into our kids is crucial. Character is who they truly are.
After reading and highlighting so much of an awesome book,
Parenting With Scripture, by Kara Durbin,
I decided to make Character Studies for my kids and I am going to share one with you today.

Basically, you look up the definition of the character trait. Then, there is a verse to memorize.
Then, there is a passage of Scripture that illuminates the character trait in action.
After reading the passage, there are Observation and Application questions to go through.
Lastly, a place for prayer is given to encourage a time of prayer.

The first one is on Appreciation. Who doesn't appreciate being appreciated?
But what I have realized that more important than being appreciated by others
is having an attitude of appreciation toward God and others.

APPRECIATION

Word to Look Up: appreciation:

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Verse(s) to Memorize: Psalm 100:4:

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Scripture to Read/Study:
Luke 17:11-19:
¹¹ Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem
    that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
¹² Then as He entered a certain village,
    there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
¹³ And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
¹⁴ So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
    And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned,
    and with a loud voice glorified God,
¹⁶ and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷ So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
¹⁸ Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
¹⁹ And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Questions to Answer:

Who are the key people in this lesson?

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Describe 9 Lepers: ________________________________________________________ 

Describe 1 Leper: _________________________________________________________

What happens?

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How does the 1 leper stand out?

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What does Jesus say to him?

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Application to Plan:

What is the key thing you learned from this lesson?

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 How can you apply what you learned from this lesson?

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Prayer to Pray:

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If you need an easier-to-print PDF version, please e-mail me at mightyacorns613@hotmail.com