Ritual/Tradition

Begin your time together at your established Family Worship area.  Light your candle and have a family member open up this time of worship in prayer.  One way to think about your prayer time is to use the word PRAY as a guide. (P-is for Praise, praising God, R-is for repent, asking forgiveness, A-is for another, pray for another person, Y-yourself, pray for yourself).  

Share

After praying, you can begin to share your highs and lows for the week.  Allow each family member to share their thoughts, feelings or observations from the week.  Be mindful that sharing in a loving, safe and non-judgmental is important so that your child will feel comfortable opening up his/her thoughts and feelings.

This may also be the time that you will want to read the entries in your family’s 40 Day Lenten Journal.  Hopefully everyone has had a chance to write down something that can be shared during this time together. Perhaps it was something as simple as your child shared their toys, or maybe you noticed how everyone was helping out at home with chores, maybe your child scored well on a test at school or you decided not to scream and yell at the driver who just cut you off and instead offered a prayer for that driver.  Your family journal will be unique to your family.

Read/Reflection

Matthew 14: 13-21 (feeding of the 5,000 people)

It is interesting to note that the feeding of the 5,000 people is told in all four of the New Testament gospels.  (Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-14) There is an important lesson here to be learned, God will provide. If you could, take time to read all four accounts and then compare each account.  One saying that you will find in each of the passages is the following, “…he gave thanks…” When there didn’t seem to be enough food to handle feeding the thousands of people who had followed Jesus, something miraculous happened.  God provided for all their needs. I love the fact that there were left overs! Don’t you just love how God works things out.

Here are some questions that you might discuss after your reading.

• Why did the disciples want to disperse the crowd of people from Jesus?
• What do you think the disciples were feeling when Jesus said to tell the crowds to sit down on the grass?
• Why was it important for Jesus to give thanks before eating?
• How could two fish and five loaves of bread feed that many people?
• Would this story be as impactful if it was only a hand full of people that were in the crowd?
• Have you ever doubted that God could provide something in your own life?

Activity

Our topic this week is, “We hunger for community.”  Being part of a church community means a sense of belonging to a faithful group of believers.  Perhaps your family can extend this sense of “community” to other relatives, friends and neighbors that do not belong to Epiphany.  Here is a list of ideas you might want to do:

• You may want to invite some neighbors over for a pot luck dinner, have each family bring a different food to share.  Getting to know your neighbors is a bit of a lost art. Spending time together, learning about each other is an important step in creating community within your neighborhood.  
• Host a popcorn/movie night with your children’s friends and families.  Getting to know your children’s friends shows that you want your children to feel comfortable bringing their friends to your home.
• Have a game night and dessert bar.  Invite families to join in a family game night and bring a dessert to share.
• Invite a group of families and friends to take a hike or ride the bike trails.

These are just a few ideas, perhaps your family can come up with their own idea.  Whatever you decide is great, just be open to doing your activity on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.  The more you are together, the greater opportunities to form a lasting bond and a sense of “community.” We were created to be in fellowship with one another.  

1 John 1:7  “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together.  We ask that you forgive us for not treating others as you would want us to.  At this time we offer prayers for the following. . . . . (include any personal prayers at this time) We pray that you will bless this family this week that we may be a light for you. Please guide our thoughts, and words, may we speak kindly to one another.  Help us to reach out and share our faith with others in our community. Amen

Blessing

We have been blessed to be a blessing to others. May God give you peace.