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Jul 12, 2022 18:00pm

Faith TALK: Drawing Lines with our Families

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

T-Talk About It Topic

Our TALK topic this week is focusing all on creating boundary lines with our family. Boundary lines are dividing lines—they mark the end to one’s property and the beginning to another’s property. They show us where we can go and where we can’t go. Drawing boundary lines means that we are going to talk about what is appropriate behavior for our family. We want our family to be the best it can and drawing boundary lines will help everyone know what kind of behavior will help this family grow stronger together.

To begin, I want to ask you guys to tell me some good things about our family. What are some things we do or say that you like?

What are some things that we do or say that you don’t like or things that don’t help us grow stronger together?

Grab a piece of paper. I want you to brainstorm ideas to this question:

If we could be the best family that we could be, what kinds of things would we be doing and saying?

Mama, grab a chalkboard or Big Post it and write down ideas from each kiddo to make a master list of everyone’s ideas.

A-Anchor To The Bible

God created the family, beginning with Adam and Eve. Eve was a gift to Adam because God said that “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.” Not only did God create Eve for Adam, but he wanted to be in relationship with the both of them. The same goes for us today. You see, God knows that we need each other, and not only that, God wants to be the very center of our families. In Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, God wants us to love Him with all our hearts and He wants us to talk about Him throughout the day, every day.

So, the stronger our relationship with God is, the stronger our family grows. Let’s talk about some of the ways God wants us to treat each other as a family.

Read each of the following Scripture aloud and talk about what it means: Exodus 20:12, Proverbs 1:8, Proverbs 15:1, Philippians 2:14, Ephesians 4:32, 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, Luke 6:31, Proverbs 10:9, James 5:16, and Ephesians 4:29.

This can lead to good discussions, Mama! Questions like: Are we doing or saying that? How can we get better here?

Now that we’ve read what God says about how we are to treat each other, let’s go back to the list we made earlier about being the best family we can. Is there anything we need to add to it, based upon what God said?

As a family, rewrite your list, incorporating what your kiddos said along with what God said. Post it somewhere visible in the house. These will be your family boundaries. These will show the lines that are acceptable and appropriate and the ones that are not.

Following these boundaries will help our family grow stronger together!

L-Learn God’s Word

Since love is the most important quality of God and His people, it will be our focus verse this week:

Most importantly, love each other deeply. Love has a way of not looking at others’ sins.1 Peter 4:8 (ICB)

Love is at the heart of every relationship we have—our family is where we “practice” it ona daily basis.

The more we love each other, the more we can overlook the areas we tend to disagree.
The more we show love to one another, the more forgiving we are capable of being.
The more we love each other, the more we honor Jesus and the family He gave us.

The better we are at loving our family, the better we will be at loving others!

K-Keep Each Other Accountable

This is the most valuable step of any Faith TALK! It’s focused on keeping everyone accountable with their language in this week’s Faith TALK, as well as the memory verse. Here are a few ideas to keep everyone in check:

Post up your Family Boundaries! Keep each other in check with their words and behavior all week by keeping your Family Boundaries somewhere where all can see. Refer back to them when needed.
Create consequences when your people cross those boundaries. Come up with creative ways to show your people how serious you are about these boundaries. If they are not speaking kindly, have them look that person in the face,apologize sincerely and express his/her love for that person. Have them write a letter of apology for their behavior. Have them write sentences on their offense beginning with “I will…” (“I will speak with love to my brother.” or “I will speak respectfully to my mother.”)
Write the memory verse on a chalkboard and display it by the door. Have them say the verse each morning and initial they did so.