Creating Compassionate Families Day 2

Being a Blessing”

Big Idea: God has a purpose for our family, and that includes blessing others.

Look around you. As you move from home to work to school and back again, it's easy to miss ways we can do good for others. Spend this day looking for simple, practical ways to bless others.

Pass-It-On Game

Let’s get the conversation started about how God blesses us and how we can bless others. Here’s a quick car game to enjoy with your kids on the way to or from school or weekly activities.

• Describe one good gift God gave when He made you and one good gift God made in someone else. Go around the car until everyone’s had a turn.
• Ask: What part of that gift is for you to keep and what part is to share?
• If you know a child who lives in poverty, ask your kids, “What is one good gift that (child's name) has?"

Create a Blessing Bag

SUPPLIES

• A gallon-size freezer bag
• Blessing items

INSTRUCTIONS

1. As a family, think of someone you know who could use a blessing. The sky’s the limit! It could be a sick grandparent, a classmate, a neighbor or a homeless person your child has noticed. If your family sponsors a child who lives in poverty, you can make a blessing package to send to your sponsored child. Be sure you check with the organization through which you sponsor to see if there are guidelines for what you can mail.
2. Make a list of simple items that could be a blessing to that person. Let your child do what she does best … so if you have a talented artist, encourage her to make a drawing or card. If your child likes to cook, maybe he could help bake some cookies.
3. Gather the items your family listed and put them in a bag (something as simple as a large freezer bag). Plan when you can deliver your “Blessing Bag,” and pray as a family for the person you are seeking to bless.
4. After you deliver your package, talk about Ephesians 2:10. How did God prepare your family to be a blessing?

Made Alive in Christ

1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

11Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which isperformed in the flesh by human hands- 12remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.