Reflection Activity Week 7

Step 1: Remember these key tips for your reflection time.

Look / Reflect / ActLook at what is happening.

Reflect on the situation.Act to make a difference.

Take time to reflect by yourself.

Speak to others.Speak to your family.Share any concerns with trusted adults.

Think of ways that:Something great can keep on going.Something troublesome can come

to an end.

When you feel ready, read the prayers on the next page.

Lord Jesus Christ,you taught us to love our neighbour, and to care for those in need as if we were caring for you.

In this time of anxiety, give us strength to comfort the fearful and to assure the isolatedof our love, and your love,

for your name’s sake.Amen.

O God,help me to trust you,help me to know that you are with me,help me to believe that nothing can separate me from your loverevealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen.

Step 2: Read these prayers about love during the current climate. Spend time thinking about who these words apply to for you.

Step 3: Read this passage from Corinthians about love.

Step 4: Consider this passage with our current situation.These are perhaps some of the most

well-known verses in the bible. They focus on love – both what it is and what it is not.

It is a popular reading at weddings, and you may have heard it read in other places as well.

What is interesting about the passage is that certain parts of it stand out at different times in our lives.

Perhaps ‘patience’ leaps out when we have not been as patient with others as we could have been

(think family isolation), or love ‘protects' feels more meaningful when we need to focus

on looking after one another

What part of the passage stands out the most to you today? Think about the way in which we are living now and how the

words currently take on a different or greater meaning

Step 5: Undertake activities to help you reflect on how love can give hope to all.

If you have a ‘bubble blower’, blow bubbles into the air.

As you watch them move, reflect on how you can be more loving, patient, kind this week.

When you’ve decided, why not pop them as a way of promising to yourself you will do that thing.

It may be a good idea to focus on one bubble each time to really reflect and think about what you will do, and then just pop that bubble.

Do this a few times to represent each different act you want to undertake this week.

Bubble prayers

Dice prayers:Decide on different people or groups, and label them 1-6.

Roll a die. For that number, you could:

1) Pray for that person/group this week; and/or

2) Reflect on how they could know they are loved this week. Is there anything you could do to show how much you care for them?

Step 5: Undertake activities to help you reflect on how love can give hope to all.

Create a comic strip of this verse.

Read the verse again or have it in front of you.

How could you show examples of what love is and is not in these verses?

Link it to your current situation.

- Are you showing / not showing these things? How?

- Anything you should keep doing / do differently / stop doing?

- Consider what love people are showing to you.

Step 5: Undertake activities to help you reflect on how love can give hope to all.

Questions to reflect on by yourself or with others.

Read the bible passage through twice slowly. What words or phrases stand out for you here the most today? Why do you think that might be?

Step 6: Reflect and pray

Dear God,Thank you for your unfailing love ,Help us this week to be patient, kind and forgiving, Protecting, hopeful and truthful,As we seek to love one another,Amen

Step 6: Personal reflection / worship

Take time to listen to the following songs about the power of love and why love between friends and family can be such a beacon of hope to everyone. They are:

‘The Power of Love’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood:https://vimeo.com/99271483

‘With a Little Help from my Friends’ by Joe Cocker:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCrlyX6XbTU

‘I’ll be There For You’ by The Rembrandts:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=jUSXZAtCaRQ&feature=emb_logo

If you are a family that like to share in prayer and collective worship at home, you may be interested in ’engage worship’. They are providing daily prayer and worship activities on their website:https://engageworship.org/engage-at-home-daily-

family-prayer-and-worship-activitiesand on their social media accounts for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram(use the hashtag #EngageAtHome).

Families can engage in these activities together, using movement, interaction, craft, play and more. They will be varying the themes and types of engagement with God, and we hope that you’ll be able to adapt the ideas to suit your family. They believe that in the midst of isolation and struggle, God will be at work in and through his people. The ideas are released daily with dates on them, but feel free to use them whenever suits.

If you have younger children at home, then check out

‘Diddy Disciples’. They do worship and bible

storytelling for toddlers and young children and during this difficult

time, they are also offering Bedtime Prayers at 6:45pm on

their Facebook page.

Feeling musical? Check out Rend Co. Kids, whose mission is to bring

joy and music to adults, kids, and everyone in between.

Their website https://www.worshiptogether.com/worship-

leaders/rend-co-kids/

provides some songs that might help you to have a moment of reflection if you are currently finding it

difficult to find the time, place, or even motivation, to reflect by yourself.

Find your own space away from others, put your headphones in, relax, and listen to the words.

After listening to them all, and watching some, we would recommend ‘Fun’ and ‘Feels Good’, which

both have videos to go with the songs.

The songs are filled with positivity and certainly put us in a better mood. Find a song you like and

share it with your family.