Community Group Sessions 4

Last night at Community Group we discussed what the next step is after laying the Foundation of a Mission Statement. Keeping in mind that the mission statement is after much prayer and based upon God's word we have gained an understanding of the direction God would have us Intentionally go. We have now gained the proper view of "success in the family" verses the world's view of success for our children & family.

The next step is putting the Walls of Protection in place. There is a story told about an experiment done with children staying huddled together and not using the full space of a playground that did not have a fence. Once a fence was put in place the children began to play on the entire playground. Within the context of the family our children must have a sense of security and know the boundaries that have intentionally been put there for them to grow in a healthy way. Some of the walls of protection that we came up with as a group that need to be in place within a healthy family are:
*healthy relationships-husband/wife, mother/child, father/child, friends
*Character Building must be intentional this could be based upon the fruit of the Spirit described in Galations 5:22
*Communication needs to take place, which happens in our words, our tone, our nonverbal expressions. We need to strive for understanding each other not just wanting the other person to hear. Eph.4:29, James 3:5-8, Ps. 68:5 and Prov. 15:1 are all wonderful verses to study to help allow communication to take place
*Role Model
*Pray
*Devotion
*Thankfulness
*Eyes to see hand of God at work
*Protection of family time together
*Mission Minded

These were just some of the main supporting walls that we shared that need to be in place to help build a home that will withstand the storms of life. Matthew 7:24-27 talks of the wise man building his house upon the rock and the foolish man built his upon the sand. I think this is very appropriate to use within the building of our homes today. We must intentionally build our families upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ and establish the supporting beams and walls based upon the principles God has laid out in His manual book for our lives, the BIBLE.

My prayer for you is that you seek out God's word and heart to establish the walls in your family that will withstand the storms of this world. It is not a matter of "if" the storms will come but when they come, may your family be firmly grounded and rooted in the truth of God's word.

Please post a comment with some "walls" you have established within your family. We can all learn from each other!


Praying for more Authentic Families,
Darla

Community Group Sessions 3

Today I would like to share about our community group session 3, "Begin With The End In Mind". We did a recap of the previous session of noting that God's view of success for our children & families does not match up with the worlds view of success. With this in mind we began with an illustration of taking a family vacation. Everyone was asked to "mentally" pack their suit case for our vacation. Each one "packed their bags" ,but when the question was asked what they packed and did they pack the appropriate things to go to Alaska, no one had properly packed things for this destination. It would have been much more beneficial to have known the destination prior to the packing. The same is true with the importance of having a blueprint before building, having a flight plan before a flight, a script written before the play, workout schedule before the marathon. Thus having a plan for our family is critical. Knowing where we are going as a family helps us along the way to that destination.

We discussed the importance of a "Family Mission Statement". This is the blueprint, if you will, of where a family is headed. It can be as short as 3 or 4 words, it can be in a sentence or 2 but the point is that we as parents take the time to pray and ask God what His plans are for our family and clearly define that so that as we live from day to day we can be better equipped to equip our children for what God has for us.

A few years ago we developed our mission statement which says,

We are a Kingdom Family

We desire to love God with all our heart.

We desire to love God's word and live it out.,

We desire to love God's people and lead them to love Him and His word.

We are a Kingdom Family.

If you have never thought about where you as a family or as an individual are going, I would encourage you to do so. If you are not aiming at something then you run a great risk of ending up somewhere you would never have intended to go and most likely that is not where God's plan would have taken you either. Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Seeking God first will most assuredly produce the best end result for you and your family. Give it a try!!

Praying for more Authentic Families,

Darla

Intentional Parenting

We have started new Community Groups at TCAL for the summer. Brian and I are leading one called "Intentional Parenting". I'm going to share the last 2 weeks with you for those who haven't been able to attend yet to catch up or for those of you who can't attend at all. It is our prayer that God could use something to help you or another friend become a little more sharpened as you parent the children God has placed within your care.

The first week we basically did introductions and tried to get to know each other better. We talked about the expectations each had for the group. We took a journey into our past to remember the good times from our past and then recalled the memorable moments we have currently in our families today. We then looked at God's word to see what has been set before us by God. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up." This is a foundational passage for us as parents as it is our responsibility to "disciple" train, teach our children.

Last week our topic was "Success". Brian posed the question, "What does success look like for your child today?" and then he had each of us write down 5 things that describe what we each saw as success for our child at age 30?

Go ahead, think about it yourself....................

We shared some of the things and then I read a story about a family and their dreams for their son and baseball from "Parenting with Kingdom Purpose". The story displayed the heartache of the parents as they pursued a dream for their son that was not based on God's view of success and purpose for their son.

Next we looked to God's word to see what he had to say about success. Brian asked us as we read the scripture to read them in light of success for your children. The scriptures are: Matt. 22:37-38, Jer. 29:11, 1Cor. 16:13, Ro. 12:1-2, Matt.6:33 and 2Chron. 16.9a. I would challenge you to take a look at these scriptures yourself and see what God might view success to be in the life of you and your child(ren). We find that sometimes our view of success and God's view are not always the same. If this is true for you then you might want to reevaluate and ask that God would help your view line up with his.

The night was ended with an encouragement to pray for God's measure of success for our children and to be a revolutionary parent, be intentional about building the right things in our children and to think with a Kingdom Purpose focus for our families. We gave a handout entitled "10 Building Blocks for Helping Your Kids Become Champions in Life" by Jim Burns & Pat Williams. You can obtain a copy of this article at www.HomeWord.com

For those of you who would like to come to the Community Group it is not too late. We start at 7pm on Tues. Hopefully I will be able to get the next session posted for those of you who are not able to attend and you can again GLEAN from what God has taught Brian and I.

Helping to Build more Authentic Families,
Darla