Faith Interviews Week 3: Family Far Away

a pic of Miss R with her far-away grandparents

This month, we heard about Lois and Eunice in church.  Lois and Eunice were Timothy’s grandmother and mother, and Paul says that Timothy learned his foundation of faith from them.  My husband’s parents live in another state, and we won’t be seeing them in person until Thanksgiving, so I arranged for them to do this activity with my kids by Skype.  We arranged a date and time that worked for all of us, and I texted the questions to them the night before.  If you are blessed enough to have family nearby, do it in person, or you can think of someone in your family who might be far from home and would welcome a little God Time with your kids. Be as creative as you can.  You can find the discussion guide for this here:

faith-interview

Gathering Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)

Our gathering prayer was a technology prayer;

Please God, help our computers to work so that we can see and talk to one another this morning.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Faith Interviews:

We took this one question at a time, and each grandparent answered each question.  Our kids answered them fairly spontaneously, as they have gotten into the groove of this whole faith interview thing!  Here are the questions:

• What is your favorite Bible story or verse? Why?

• What is your favorite memory of church or church activities? Why?

• What is your favorite prayer or way to pray? Why?

• What is your favorite church, Sunday School, camp, or VBS song? Why?

Once again it was a great experience for our family.  My husband and I didn’t answer the questions this time, but agreed that it was awesome to hear the responses of his parents.  In our family, these subjects do not come up in spontaneous conversation, so it was good her learn more about the faith life of his parents in this intentional way.  You might want to record everyone’s answers in a short video or audio file so that your kids can hear them again and again.  During the week, challenge your family to look up the Bible stories, prayers, and songs that you mentioned.  You will see the favorites of my family in upcoming Family God Time posts.

Thanks for taking the time to feed your family’s faith this week!  I hope this time was a holy time for you.

Closing Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)

Dear Jesus, we thank you for time to feed our faith as a family, and time to learn more about each other.  Keep us faithful, now and always.  In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Faith Interviews Week 2: Grandparents

This month, we heard about Lois and Eunice in church.  Lois and Eunice were Timothy’s grandmother and mother, and Paul says that Timothy learned his foundation of faith from them.  My parents happened to be in town, so I thought this would be a neat opportunity for my parents and my kids to learn about faith from each other.  I told my parents what the questions would be the night before so that they had time to think about them.  Then, we agreed to share our answers after lunch.  You can find the discussion guide for this here:  faith-interview

Gathering Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)
Our gathering prayer was our lunch prayer:
God is great.  God is good, and we thank him for our food.  Amen!

Faith Interviews:
We took this one question at a time, and let each person around the table answer, no matter what their age or stage.  Here are the questions:

• What is your favorite Bible story or verse? Why?

• What is your favorite memory of church or church activities? Why?

• What is your favorite prayer or way to pray? Why?

• What is your favorite church, Sunday School, camp, or VBS song? Why?

I was amazed and honored to hear the answers of my parents, my husband, and my kids.  It got a little bit long for their attention span, so I would suggest doing just two of these questions at a time, and saving the other two for another time.  Because my parents live far away, it was great to do it all in one shot.  You might want to record everyone’s answers in a short video or audio file so that your kids can hear them again and again.  During the week, challenge your family to look up the Bible stories, prayers, and songs that you mentioned.  You will see the favorites of my family in upcoming Family God Time posts.

Thanks for taking the time to feed your family’s faith this week!  I hope this time was a holy time for you.

Closing Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)
Dear Jesus, we thank you for time to feed our faith as a family, and time to learn more about each other.  Keep us faithful, now and always.  In your name we pray, Amen.

Faith Interviews Week 1: Parents

This month, we heard about Lois and Eunice in church.  Lois and Eunice were Timothy’s grandmother and mother, and Paul says that Timothy learned his foundation of faith from them.  When have you taken the time to tell your kids about important faith memories to you?  Consider this your opportunity.  You can find the discussion guide for this here (it includes discussion starters and helps if you get stuck):  faith-interview

This first week, you might want to try it out with just parents and kids over a meal or during a quiet time in your family’s schedule.  Invite one set of grandparents over for breakfast, lunch, supper, or bedtime next week and don’t worry about it today.

Gathering Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)
Our gathering prayer was our lunch prayer:
God is great.  God is good, and we thank him for our food.  Amen!

Faith Interviews:
We took this one question at a time, and let each person around the table answer, no matter what their age or stage.  Here are the questions:

• What is your favorite Bible story or verse? Why?

• What is your favorite memory of church or church activities? Why?

• What is your favorite prayer or way to pray? Why?

• What is your favorite church, Sunday School, camp, or VBS song? Why?

I have to admit that I knew how my kids would answer most of these questions, but they loved getting the chance to “teach” everyone else about themselves.  An unexpected benefit was that I got to hear my husband’s answers, not all of which were known to me.  You might want to record everyone’s answers in a short video or audio file so that your kids can hear them again and again.  During the week, challenge your family to look up the Bible stories, prayers, and songs that you mentioned.  You will see the favorites of my family in upcoming Family God Time posts.

Thanks for taking the time to feed your family’s faith this week!  I hope this time was a holy time for you.

Closing Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style)
Dear Jesus, we thank you for time to feed our faith as a family, and time to learn more about each other.  Keep us faithful, now and always.  In your name we pray, Amen.