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.

Hopefully everyone has had a chance to share something 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. 

Read/Reflection

Matthew 4:19 (Fishers of People)

Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee and noticed some men, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.  They were casting their nets into the sea because they were fishermen.  Jesus approached the men and told them to put down their nets and to follow him.  He would make them fishers of men.  What do you think these men did?  They put down their nets and walked away from their fishing.  Fishing for “fish” seemed less important than fishing for men.  Mark 1:16-18 recounts this story and in Mark 1:18 it says that, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”  That’s pretty remarkable, the power of Jesus’ calling. 

Just as Jesus called Peter and Andrew, He calls us to be “fishers” of men.  What do you think that means?  You might be thinking, “I don’t even know how to fish or don’t really like fishing, it’s too boring.”  What Jesus is asking of us is to step out of our comfort zone, reach out and tells others about what it means to follow Jesus.  As we meet and interact with others in our community, schools, and at work, we have an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with others through our words, actions and deeds. 

You may be the only Bible that a person will ever read!  It is our job to bring people to Jesus through our actions of kindness, compassion, service, leadership and hospitality.

Activity

What you need:

• Bag of balloons (12-24 balloons)
• 2-4 large plastic trash bags (depending on the number of people in your family)
• 2-4 plastic nets (like the ones used to catch butterflies, can be found at the Dollar Tree store)

Blow up as many balloons as you can, and place them around your family room or wherever you have some extra room.  Next give 2 family members a plastic net, and 2 a trash bag. (you can adjust the number of participants based on your family)  Once you are ready to start, have the ones with nets run around and capture as many balloons as possible and put them in the trash bags.  After 1 minute, then switch places.  See who can capture the most balloons. 

The idea is to recognize that the balloons represent the number of people or “fish” that you caught.  Now think about how you can actually “catch” people for Jesus.  Perhaps your child can invite a friend to attend a youth function at church, or invite a family to attend church with your family and then go out for dinner or lunch depending on which service you attend.  Another idea would be to seek out a mission project as a family, check out your local volunteer opportunities.  In addition, you might consider gathering slightly used clothing, toys or household items to donate.  Perhaps you could support a global mission project, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Whatever your family chooses, catching fish for Jesus is what we are called to do.  Sharing the love of Christ and being a witness, teaching others that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light of this world. (John 14:6)

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together to learn more about your word.  We ask that you forgive us for not taking the time to share our faith with others.  Please guide us as we seek to catch “fish” for you.  Give us wisdom and grace to share our faith with others. We pray that you will bless our efforts and keep us in your loving care.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen

Blessing

“Keep on loving each other as brothers.  Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”  Hebrews 13: 1-3