Family Discipleship

To make disciples of our own Children, we need to intentionally develop some home disciplines. We would recommend at least 3 key disciplines. They are family prayer, family meal and family fun time. In this way every home can live by the mandate that God gave parents to train up their children.

Family Prayer
Family Prayer

A family that prays together stays together. Pray everyday as a family with one specific focus area and make this a regular routine of your family life. You could use daily devotional tools like ” Daily Bread” to follow various themes during your family worship. Below are the 7 areas to focus in prayer for the 7 days of the week.

Monday

Pray for your familyΒ 
(For Personal, Financial, Spiritual needs of each members in the family)

Tuesday

Pray for your extended family
(Pray for their Protection, Family needs, and Salvation experience of the one’s who do not know Christ)

Wednesday

Pray for the City/ State
(Pray for the government, and different public department eg. Police, health, education etc.)

Thursday

Pray for your Nation
(Pray for the political leaders, eradication of unethical acts & anti social elements, eg. child abuse, sexual harassment, divorce etc.)

Friday

Pray For the World
(Pray for different nations especially for peace within country and with neighboring countries)

Saturday

Pray for Christian Leaders
(Pray for different Christian leaders, their family, Ministry needs and God’s guidance.)

Sunday

Thank God for the week
(Thank God for answered prayers and pray that you will always have an attitude of gratitude to God.)

Family Mealtime Conversations
Family Mealtime Conversation

A family that eats together bonds together. Our eating time is a time of relational and Spiritual bonding. Research made by Harvard University, shows how family meal has transformed the lives of many homes especially children. Here is a small write up from their website β€œOver the past 20 years, research has shown what parents have known for a long time: sharing a fun family meal is good for the spirit, brain and health of all family members. Recent studies link regular family meals with the kinds of behaviors that parents want for their children: higher grade-point averages, resilience, and self-esteem. Additionally, family meals are linked to lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, and depression.” Hence it is important to fix regular mealtimes and you can access family meal conversation questions for the next 21 days. This is a starter for you to have worthwhile conversations as you make this part of your home culture.

Day 1: Best Friends
  1. Ask children about their best friends or about their best meal.
  2. Tell them also about Β your best child hood friend and some of the fun times you had.
Day 2: Visit to Native
  1. Share about your memories of your grandpa and grandma and your visit to native place.
  2. Ask children to share which is the place they love to visit and why?
Day 3: Finances
  1. If money is not an issue, what would you like to own? And Why?
  2. Share with your children your struggle or your parents struggle with money to even meet some basic needs. If you did not have any struggle…ask them as to how much they know or feel Β about people struggling without money for their daily living, especially in a time like this.
Day 4: Making Home a better Place
  1. Whats is that you like most about each other. Take turn and answer one by one.
  2. What is that you would like to me to do to make our home a better place? ( Please give freedom to tell anything and don’t defend or argue or get worked up if something is said which is difficult to hear. We are here to build our home ..so listen and say, I will try my best.)
Day 5: Identifying the area of fear

Ask each one and listen to words and feelings expressed:

  1. What is your greatest fear and why?
  2. How can we as a family help one another to overcome each of our fear?
Day 6: Encouraging to have Hobby
  1. Share to each other your favourite hobby and what inspired you for this hobby?
  2. If you have a full time job connected to your hobby what would that be? And then
    would you like it?
Day 7: Good Deeds
  1. Recollect an incident when you did good to someone and how they felt really happy. Take turns to share.
  2. Share how you felt when you made someone happy. Also think of ways you can make someone happy in the days to come…by a small good deed
Day 8: Building a lasting relationship
  1. Share about a person whom you think don’t agree with you and why?
  2. How can we respond differently to such people keeping relationship and respect intact?
Day 9: Gifts
  1. What is the best gift you have received? Why is it the best?
  2. How did you feel when you received it ? Share with each other your experience in detail instead of one word..like great, exciting!
Day 10: Awards
  1. Have you received any kind of rewards, awards or any prizes? If so, share about it and how you felt when you received it?
  2. Can each have you shared any incident that someone at your home did for you for whom you are thankful? It can be a small thing, but it means a lot to you. Only one incident …but make sure everybody is covered. You can even assign one person for each!
Day 11: Being Grateful
  1. Who is the person whom you would like to spend maximum time with if given a choice. Why?
  2. Other than your immediate family, who is the person that you think will enjoy spending time with you? Why?
  3. Name 3 people each whom you have not connected for a long time and you want to connect? Can you make it a point to call those 3 people within the next 24 hours?
Day 12: Identifying how one feels loved
  1. Recollect a time when someone's hug meant a lot to you and why?
  2. What kind of expression makes you feel more loved?
Day 13: Encouraging one another
  1. How do you feel when someone encourages you?
  2. Recollect an incident when someone encouraged you when you were feeling low?
Day 14: Considering others better
  1. What annoys you the most in a relationship and why?
  2. Take turns and share one characteristic about each other which you think the
    other is better than you. ( This will require a bit of thinking and humilty)
Day 15: Generosity
  1. When we see children begging in streets or in their dirty clothes what thoughts come into our mind about them? Why?
  2. If the same child was well dressed and spoke your kind of language how
    differently would you treat the person and why?
Day 16: Overcoming disappointment
  1. Ask each to share about your worst disappointment in the past?
  2. How did you get out of it? Recollect how you coped with it and share?
Day 17: Using Internet in good way
  1. If all gadgets are removed from our lives. How would be spending our day?
  2. List all the goodness and badness of Internet. ( A good time to teach about the negative effect of internet)
Day 18: Anger Management
  1. Can you recollect an incident when someone lost their cool badly and what happened as a result of that?
  2. What do you think really makes you feel angry?
Day 19: Forgiveness
  1. Share an incident about a person who kept their anger against you and reacted much later in a bad way? How did you feel during that time?
  2. Is there anyone about you feel upset and you tend to be revengeful? If so, how can you get rid of that feeling and be free?
Day 20: Truthfulness
  1. Did anyone tell you a big lie which you found out later? How did you feel?
  2. Can anyone share one incident how telling the truth helped you?
Day 21: Sharing Funny incidents
  1. Each one would share one of the funny incident that happened in one’s own life where you made a fool of yourself and it was so funny to remember it!
  2. Who among your family member is most funny and why?
Day 22: Work life Balance
  1. How much do you like your work and why?
  2. Is your work presently helping you to balance your life, work and family? Why or why not?
Day 23: Well ordered Home
  1. How do you feel when you enter a home that is well ordered and clean? Why?
  2. What are the things that you think you can live without, that needs to be thrown , given away or discarded?
Day 24: Pride
  1. List some of the things that you are proud about as an individual andΒ  as a family?
  2. How much has this pride built relationship or broken relationship?
Day 25: Do unto others as you want to do unto you!
  1. If your neighbour’s house is robbed , but the thief who also came to your house did not touch any of your belonging, describe your true feelings about it?
  2. If the reverse happens how would you feel?
Day 26: Indebted
  1. When people forget a good deed done by you, what is the feeling behind it?
  2. Name a few people who have made a difference in your life whom you have lost touch?
Day 27: Goals
  1. What do we want to achieve in life? Why?
  2. Share some thoughts about when you will be fully satisfied?
Day 28: Unappreciated chores
  1. Share some of the daily task done by each one that is done for the common good of the family?
  2. Take time to thank and appreciate one another for those tasks which otherwise gets unnoticed?
Day 29: Marriage
  1. What are some of the beliefs about marriage that we have derived from the society?
  2. Has that helped your marriage or has it been a deterrent?
Day 30: Faith in God
  1. What does Faith in God mean to you?
  2. How has it helped you to be a better person?
Day 31: Closest Friend
  1. Who is your closest friend and why do you consider him or her close?
  2. What is one main quality you like in a friend?
Day 32: False News
  1. What are some of the common gossip about corona virus?
  2. How much is it true and verified answer, how much is it purely assumption and imagination?
Day 33: Vulgar Language
  1. How do you feel when people use regular vulgar language in their conversation with you?
  2. Are these profane words helpful or harmful? Why?
Day 34: Your Reaction
  1. Share some incidents when you had a conversation with someone who thinks differently from you?
  2. How did you respond or react? How do you treat that person now?
Family Activities
Family Activities

These fun activities are ways to engage your kids at least once a week in having regular fun times and also using the time for passing on the Godly values and also the Scripture. This is mainly aimed at parents with children. This gives quality time with the children, but also helps to inculcate the habit of teaching life’s valuable lessons as our children grow through fun and great memories. These are taken from resources such as famtime.com and also from family falooda and some written by Dr. P C Mathew.