Parent CUE FAITH Believing in what you can t see because of what you can see. MEMORY VERSE Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NIrV 1: Calling of Peter/Fishers of Men Luke 5:1-11 3: John the Baptist in Jail Luke 7:18-22 BOTTOM LINE: When I see how God provides today, it helps me trust Him with tomorrow. 2: Peter Walks on Water Matthew 14:22-33 BOTTOM LINE: When I experience what God can do, it helps me face my fears. BOTTOM LINE: When I hear what Jesus has done, it helps me believe who Jesus is. 4: Jesus Teaches Nicodemus John 3:1-21 BOTTOM LINE: When I believe who Jesus is, I ll live with God forever. www.thinkorange.com
Parent CUE MEAL TIME 1: Ask a kid: What are things you can t see but you know exist? Ask a parent: How would your life change if you refused to believe in things you couldn t see? 2: Ask a kid: Who can teach you to grow in your faith? Ask a parent: What are some ways you can experience God even though you can t see Him? 3: Ask a kid: Think about something you care about. What are reasons that other people should care about it too? Ask a parent: How have you seen God s love? 4: Ask a kid: What are some things you ve seen God do around you? Ask a parent: How does knowing the character of God help you to trust Him? PARENT TIME Regardless of the age of our kids, how many we have, or where we find ourselves in life the tension is the same. All parents face some level of tension between wanting to hang on to their kids and letting them go to become who God intended them to be. Now is when our kids want to ride their bikes further from home. Now is when they re planning sleepovers with their friends. Now is when they re starting to ask for email and social media accounts. Now is when it s hard to imagine these kids as adults. But now is when the independence they re practicing helps them grow into productive adults. As we think more about helping our kids connect with their own story, this month s Parent Cue Live gives us three tips to remember. Download the podcast on www.orangeparents.org. Also check out www.studio252.tv and the Parent CUE App for your smartphone. www.thinkorange.com
ONE READ Luke 5:9 11 DAY 1 Grab a couple of sheets of paper and fold them in half to make a book. On the cover write, Faith Bait: Reasons to Trust God. Decorate the cover however you d like. Then turn to the first page and on the top half, draw a picture of the scene as you imagine it when Peter and the others obeyed Jesus and saw their nets overflow with fish. On the bottom half, draw a picture illustrating a time when God filled your nets to overflowing maybe giving you a new friend who you love to spend time with, or providing the money your parents needed so you could go to camp. THANK God for overflowing your nets just like He did for the disciples! READ Philippians 4:19 DAY 2 Turn to the next page in your book and make a prayer list of things you need. It might be physical needs, like new soccer cleats, or it could be something like help with math or someone to sit with at lunch. Then take some time to talk to God about those needs. Thank Him in advance for providing for your needs and ask Him to help you trust Him to keep taking care of you. Put the book somewhere that you ll see it as a reminder to always trust God. ASK God to meet your needs and help you trust that He will.
ONE READ Matthew 6:31-32 DAY 3 God knows what we need before we even ask! But when we take the time to ask Him to meet our needs, it shows Him we recognize that everything comes from Him. Take a look back at your list of needs from yesterday. On the next page, write the categories those needs apply to (like food, clothes, friends, jobs for parents, etc.). Then go interview a parent or older sibling about the times when God has met their needs in those categories. Write a sentence or two (or draw a picture) about their story so you won t forget how God met their needs. LOOK for examples of how God has provided in the past so you can trust Him in the future. READ Matthew 7:11 DAY 4 God wants what is best for us. That may not always look like what we expect or want, but it does mean that we can trust Him because He knows what is best! We can trust Him with our tomorrow, and we know that because we can see examples in our lives of how He is taking care of us now. On the last page of your book, write a sentence prayer of thankfulness to God for how He has provided for you, and write out Matthew 7:11. Give a parent your Faith Bait book and ask them to wrap it like a present and keep it for you until the end of the month. At the end of February, open your gift and read through it to remember how God has provided for you. And who knows? Maybe you ll see your prayers answered for the needs you told God about earlier this week! KNOW that God wants what s best and knows what s best for you.
TWO READ Matthew 14:25-29 DAY 1 Do you think Peter had any trouble trusting Jesus after he experienced something as crazy cool as walking on the water? Even Peter had to be reminded that he could trust Jesus. We all need reminders in our lives of the ways that God has taken care of His people. Match the people from the Bible listed below with the situations or people God protected them from: David Joseph Joshua Israelites Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego Fire Goliath Pharaoh The city of Jericho Prison THANK God for so many examples of His protection and care. Answers: David/Goliath, Joseph/Prison, Joshua/The city of Jericho, Israelites/Pharaoh, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego/Fire READ 1 Peter 5:7 DAY 2 Take a piece of paper and write out all your fears anything you can think of that scares you or worries you, write it down. Now talk to God about all those fears. Tell Him what you re scared of, why it scares you, and how you need His help to face your fears. Thank Him for the ways He has taken care of you in the past. Now take that paper and destroy it somehow ball it up and throw it away, tear it into tiny little pieces, or ask an adult for help finding another creative way to destroy it. As you do, ask God for help truly giving your fears over to Him and letting go of them forever. ASK God to help you let go of your fears and face them with His help.
READ Psalm 27:1 Everyone has a safe place somewhere you can go where you feel safe and comforted. Maybe it s under the covers in your bed, or maybe you have a stuffed animal you hug (we won t tell), or maybe you just like to hang out by your mom or dad when you re scared. The awesome thing about God is that He is ALWAYS that safe place for us. Go to your safe place now and spend some time thinking about why you feel safe there. Take some time to pray about a fear you re facing right now. In the space below, write to God about it. Then write down a prayer thanking God for the fact that He is always there when you feel safe, and when you don t. TWO DAY 3 LOOK to God to be your safe place. READ Joshua 1:9 DAY 4 God has promised He is always with us, and God keeps His promises! That means, no matter what you face, He is with you and you don t have to give in to your fears. Long before smartphones with reminders or computers with calendars, people used to tie strings around their fingers to help them remember something. It seems silly, but it s hard to forget something when you constantly see and feel the string on your hand! Ask a parent for help tying a string to your finger today to remind you that God is always with you, and because of that, you can face your fears. KNOW that God will be with you wherever you go.
THREE READ Luke 7:22 DAY 1 This week you re going to be a reporter, gathering as many stories as you can from others about how Jesus has changed their lives. Pick your method of gathering stories you could use a phone or camera to take pictures and videos of the people you interview. You could take notes and write a couple of sentences about each interviewee. Or you could make a scrapbook with drawings, pictures, and short descriptions. Whatever you decide, try to interview one person each day this week. Today, start with a family member who believes in Jesus and ask them to share a story of how Jesus changed their life, or the life of someone they knew. THANK God for giving us other people to help us learn more about Him. READ Romans 10:17 John couldn t see what Jesus was doing because he was in prison, so he had to rely on the messages of others to share the stories of Jesus miracles and teachings. Those miracles and stories increased his faith, and that can work for us too! The more we hear about Jesus from others, the more we will be encouraged that Jesus is exactly who He said He was! Today, ask a friend of yours who believes in Jesus the following questions: 1) Why do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? DAY 2 2) How does your relationship with Jesus help you during the day? 3) Have you ever seen God answer one of your prayers? How? 4) What is your favorite story that Jesus told, and why? Take some time to share your answers with your friend too you can encourage their faith with your stories! ASK others around you for their stories about Jesus.
THREE READ 1 Thessalonians 2:13 DAY 3 When your faith grows because of the Jesus stories that others share with you, God s Word is working! He promised that His Word would change us, and that s exactly what is happening! Find an adult who believes in Jesus (someone other than your parent) and interview them about the ways that their relationship with Jesus has changed their life. Ask them to share about ways that they are different now that they have faith in Jesus as their Savior. After you get done interviewing them, ask them to pray a prayer of thankfulness with you. Thank God for the ways He is changing both of you through His Word and through the stories of Jesus. LOOK for encouragement from those who have been following Jesus longer than you. READ Psalm 40:9-10 DAY 4 Today, put together all of the interviews you ve gathered all week into a format that you can easily share with others. Get help from a parent to edit the videos or print out the pictures. Assemble your scrapbook or type up the stories you heard. Then find a way to share it with your friends and family. You could post it online (with a parent s permission also, be sure your interview subjects are okay with you sharing their stories!), share it with your family around the dinner table, or take it to your Small Group on Sunday. Remember that sharing your own story is as important as hearing the stories of others you are helping others grow in their faith too! KNOW that sharing your stories of how Jesus has changed you helps others grow in their faith.
READ John 3:16 FOUR DAY 1 You are walking through a field, and you find something to eat. It doesn t have bones, and it doesn t have meat. You pick it up and put it into your pocket. You take it home and put it on a shelf, but 3 days later it walks away. What is it? Could you figure it out? (The answer is below.) Riddles often seem so hard, but when we find out the answer, we wonder why we didn t think of that! Isn t it great that the words that come before have eternal life are anyone who believes in Him? God has made it so easy on us, but we so often make it hard! We make checklists of the things we have to do to get to heaven, and we work hard to make sure others are doing the same thing. But Jesus has done the work we just have to believe! THANK God for giving us other people to help us learn more about Him. READ John 14:6 Some people don t believe Jesus is who He said He was. Look at the list of words below. Cross through the descriptions that some people give Jesus but that don t line up with what He said about Himself. (Note: they may not be bad things; they re just not ALL that Jesus was!) Circle the words that you think (or know) Jesus used to talk about Himself. A GOOD TEACHER TRUTH PROPHET LIFE SAVIOR LIAR LIGHT OF THE WORLD CRAZY WAY SON OF GOD Answer: An egg DAY 2 Thankfully, Jesus was more than a prophet, more than a good teacher, and He wasn t crazy! When we believe who Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins we can live with God forever. ASK God to remind you who He is through what He does for you. Answers: Cross through good teacher, prophet, liar, crazy Circle truth, life, Savior, light of the world, way, Son of God
READ Ephesians 2:8-9 Unscramble the words below. (Hint: these are all great ways to follow Jesus.) AEDR ETH IBBEL OPHSWRI EESRV REHAS USSJE PYRA OFR EOHRST CCHHRU All of those words you just unscrambled are GREAT things to do! And they re ways to show others who Jesus is and how He has changed your life. But they aren t the Most Important Thing, and they won t get you into heaven. There is only one way to guarantee you will spend eternity with God. Write the underlined letters from above (keep them in order) into the spaces below to find out how! L IN S FOUR DAY 3 LOOK for ways to share Jesus with others. Answers: Read the Bible, worship, serve, share Jesus, pray for others, church. Believe in Jesus. READ John 14:1-3 DAY 4 What do you think heaven looks like? Draw a picture of how you imagine it. No matter how great an artist you are, or how vivid your imagination, it can t come close to what heaven looks like! God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus to die for our sins, and when we believe that, we can receive eternal life. That means we can live in heaven with God forever! If you are ready to follow Jesus, now is a great time to talk to a parent or another adult who also believes in Jesus. Tell them what you ve learned this month about Jesus, and that you are ready to follow Him with your whole life and into heaven one day! If you have already made that decision, take some time to thank God for His amazing gift. KNOW that God wants you to live with Him forever.