Saul does number two's

This week was Adam's turn to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' and it was acting night! And the story was Saul and David. Where David had the opportunity to kill king Saul when he went to relieve himself in a cave but decided not to and the apologised to Saul.

Of course Toby wanted to be king Saul, and opted to wear Santa's hat as a crown. Adam read the story (edited version) and we each played our part in the story - Toby especially liked the being allowed to make wee and poo noises while read the Bible.

The lesson we considered was how we can respond to others. King Saul wanted to kill David, and David had every opportunity to retaliate against Saul. Even David's friends encouraged him to kill Saul, but David chose differently. Sometimes people do things to us that we don't like - how do we respond (we even talked about the afternoon's sibling argument about Beados) and what we could have done differently. Great teaching point.

Gideon's 3 army men

Ok, so I'm a little behind on posting (or rather writing blogs) but we have been having a fun time with our 'Super Family Bible Night'. So here's a little update.

This week we looked at the story of Gideon from Judges 6-8. It was a little tricky to find 30,000 army men, so we worked with 30, then 10, then 3. And of course we used army men. The kids thought it would be impossible for Gideon's army of 3 to win over an army of 30, but to their amazement God's army won!

Great way to interact with this story with Toby's favorite toys - I always try to find ways to help the family engage with the story in a way that they will remember and understand.



This week we looked at how Israel separated into the 2 Kingdoms, the Northern & Southern Kingdoms. We decided to do a drawing timeline of the kings and when and why the kingdom separated. Toby & Lily love drawing so it was an easy idea for them to draw the different kings, and which king followed who (eg Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam). This idea helped us all get a bigger picture of God's overarching plan of redemption.

The learning point was about who we follow - when the people had good kings they were good and followed God, when the people had bad kings, they rebelled against God and did bad things. As a family we talked about what it means to follow good and bad people - and how to do good even when people are bad. Making good choices - even under peer pressure.

I knew this would be a big topic and challenge but getting everyone involved in the drawing and timeline was really helpful. Even a few days later Toby recites to me the kings and that Jonathon was David's best friend. Amazing!

Engaging God during holidays

God's beautiful creation

Even in the midst of holidays, there is opportunity for 'Super Family Bible Night' Recently we holidayed in Queensland with another family, and together we shared bible stories, fun, laughs, and experiencing God while on holidays.

We are blessed as a family to have another family who love God and encourage us to invest spiritually in our children. So it was a priveledge recently to go away on holidays with them.

On a number of nights we'd read bible stories as 2 families and share thoughts, insights & questions. One funny moment was around the story Jesus told about the man who built his house on the rock and another who built his house on the sand. The rain came down and washed the house on sand away. My friend asked the question, what can we learn from this story, and 3yo Joanie replies "Jesus wants me to learn how to swim". Classic! Even a 3yo was engaged in God's Word!