Building Strong Families - Devotional #4

About a week or so ago, Tyson and I did our 4th devotional in the greatest devotional book for kids ever called, "52 Fun Family Devotionals".

The focus was on Building Strong Families. The devotionals always reference scripture, obviously, as that's the point of doing the devotional. Learning God's word. This devotional referenced Matthew 7:24-27.

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat that house, but it did not fall because it was founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

As we build our lives, we need to know the importance of the Master Carpenter's construction story. This devotional was used to encourage Tyson to build his life on the foundation of Jesus and his Word.

Equipment: Square gingerbread cookies or graham crackers, "glue" made of confectioner's sugar and water, assorted candies, paper plates, and a Bible.

Exploration: Use the gingerbread cookies or graham crackers and sugar glue, have each family member create a house, tee pee, car, or whatever they want. Encourage them to be creative. Use assorted candies to decorate the creations. (I used the candy bowl from Halloween and Valentine's Day that never seems to disappear). When everyone is done, allow each family member to present their structure and describe it.

Discovery: Read Matthew 7:24-27 and talk about these questions:How is building a gingerbread house similar to building a strong family?

1. What was difficult about building something out of gingerbread? What was easy?
2. Gingerbread creations are made out of cookies and candy. What are homes made out of? What is difficult about building a home?
3. Why is it important for a family to have a strong "foundation"? What foundations would God like us to use for our family?
4. How can each of us help to build our home on a strong foundation?

Prayer: Let family members know that one important foundation is a family prayer. Then take a few minutes to ask family members to share prayer requests they'd like others to pray about.

While building the gingerbread fort, we added to our "quiet" time and sang that song, "The Wise man builds his house upon the ROCK!" We built our fort with an ice cream waffle bowl, and 3 graham crackers. It's all we had left in the house. Tyson made this fort so colorful with all the left over candy we collect over the holidays. He said, "Wow, this fort looks like Candy Land!"