What helps you know that God loves you?

What do you show your love for people in our family and others you love?

What’s a more important way of letting people know you love them—words or actions? Why?

What’s one way [...]]]> Who are the people you know for sure love you? What helps you know these people love you?

What helps you know that God loves you?

What do you show your love for people in our family and others you love?

What’s a more important way of letting people know you love them—words or actions? Why?

What’s one way you can show God’s love to someone tomorrow?

My bout with cancer slowed me down long enough for me [...]]]> The journey I underwent with breast cancer a few years ago was not something I would have chosen. But as many people who have experienced serious illness find, the challenges I faced in connection with my illness helped me to rearrange some of my priorities.

My bout with cancer slowed me down long enough for me to give serious thought to what is important. Our world inundates us with so much information about how to live better, healthier, happier, fuller, more successful lives that the information flow–or overflow–is distracting at best and downright overwhelming sometimes. We’re tempted to rush from one thing to another, often without much reflection.

For young people, who are just beginning to clarify their values and set their own priorities, the world must be even more confusing with so many forms of media, peers, school, all telling them what’s important and what it takes to be popular. They need the help of loving adults to sort out what’s important.

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I’m happy to share some of the things our family has done that have heaped me to reprioritize.

Back to Basics

We are all so busy with the stuff of life that it’s easy to lose sight of what is most important, but I think we can simplify the process a great deal by returning to the basic priorities: faith and family. Our family began sharing a 15-minute devotional period each morning before our two granddaughters left for school. We take turns reading a devotional, praying a short prayer, and ending with our own version of a group hug–which all of the family dogs wanted to join in, too.

Then at the end of the day, we review our day together and end with a prayer. In this way, the entire day is bracketed by prayer, and we’re relaying the message to our granddaughters that we keep God first in our lives throughout the day.

The Great Commandment

Giving God top priority in our lives helps us keep things in the proper perspective. Making choices and wiser decisions and loving others as ourselves just seem to follow naturally after that. Beginning my day with God always ensures that I’ll have the time and energy to do everything else that needs to be done.

A Simple Symbol

Wearing a Christian symbol–a cross, a dove, a WWJD bracelet–can serve as a reminder to pray for someone who is hurting, to not retaliate when provoked, and to keep God first in all we do. Our granddaughters often related wonderful stories about how just glancing at their bracelets helped them remember their priorities–and act accordingly.

The Secret of a Full Calendar

Like many people, I find that if I’m not careful other people will decide how I use my time. So I fill in my calendar with things that are important to me (my morning devotional time, my choir practice, my Sunday school classes, our family outings and celebrations, etc.) before I take on other commitments. I also try to set my priorities with prayer as much as possible, using God’s agenda and the things that I feel matter to God. When I sometimes still begin to over-schedule myself (old habits are hard to break!) I reassess my activities according to God’s priorities. I also ask myself how important that particular activity will seem a year from not, five years from now, etc.

A Graphic Reminder

A friend has on a ledge above her kitchen sink a small jar filled with a walnut surrounded by grains of rice. The label reads: The walnut in this jar represents the time we spend with God. The rice represents the time we spend doing other things. If you pour the rice into the jar first and then try to insert the walnut, the walnut will not fit. if you put the walnut in first, the, pour the rice around it, there is a perfect fit.

I think that just about sums up everything in a nutshell, so to speak. If we keep God first in our lives and help the children we love to do the same, then everything else will fall into place.

Sandra Humphrey is a retired clinical psychologist and an author. Several of her stories have been featured in Pockets.

One: We give thanks to God for new beginnings.

All: We give thanks to God for a new year.

One: We give thanks for a new year, but we know that with God …

All: … we can make a new beginning anytime.

One: When we do something that hurts someone else, we can ask God and [...]]]> Read Isaiah 43:15-21.

One: We give thanks to God for new beginnings.

All: We give thanks to God for a new year.

One: We give thanks for a new year, but we know that with God …

All: … we can make a new beginning anytime.

One: When we do something that hurts someone else, we can ask God and the person to forgive us.

All: We can make a new beginning.

One: When we have a bad habit that is causing us to harm ourselves, we can ask God’s help each day to get rid of the bad habit.

All: We can make a new beginning.

One: When we want to begin something new that will help us to live more the way God wants us to, we can ask God to help us make the change.

All: We can make a new beginning.

One: God’s love for us is always new; God never gives up on us.

All: God always offers us another chance.

One: God is always ready …

All: … to help us make a new beginning.

Prayer: God of new beginnings, we thank that with you we can always begin again. Thank you for always loving us and giving us a chance to start over. Help us to see the places where we need to make a new beginning. Give us the courage and trust that we need to make those changes. Amen.

Together Time

Give each person a chance to talk about his or her hopes for the new year. Where do you need to make new beginnings? Let each person write a prayer asking God’s help in making the hopes real.

What are your favorite memories of things we did as a family last year?

What are your hopes for this new year?

Is there anything new you’d like to learn or do this year? Are there ways the family can help you?

Is there anything you wish our family would do differently this year?

You visit the earth and water it, 

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water; 

you provide the people with grain, 

for so you have prepared it. 

–Psalm 65:9

This month many of us in the United States will join in Thanksgiving celebrations with family and friends. Long before such feasts in the United [...]]]> by George Hovaness Donigian

You visit the earth and water it, 

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water; 

you provide the people with grain, 

for so you have prepared it. 

–Psalm 65:9

This month many of us in the United States will join in Thanksgiving celebrations with family and friends. Long before such feasts in the United States, the Bible witnesses to celebrations of thanks to God for deliverance and for bounteous harvests.

Psalm 65 offers such a thanksgiving for bounteous crops, but the psalmist does not limit such thanksgiving to the yield of a region or a nation; the psalmist extends that thanksgiving to the whole earth.

As you gather for your Thanksgiving celebrations this month, you may wish to read the entire text of Psalm 65 as part of the prayer before the meal. Whether you read it aloud before the meal or share it in a quieter family time, consider the actions that the psalm celebrates. God:

answers prayers;

forgives transgressions

answers with deliverance;

makes the gateways of the day shout for joy;

enriches the earth;

crowns the year with bounty.

In response to God, the psalmist writes that the meadows clothe themselves, the valleys deck themselves, and together these shout and sing for joy. These actions grow from God, whose first attributes in the psalm are to answer prayers and to forgive.

After reading Psalm 65, take time to answer these Thanksgiving questions:

How did God answer my prayers during this year?

How have I grown closer to God during this year?

Who has helped me grow in my faith?

How will I praise God today?

Pray this prayer together:

O God, we thank you for all your good gifts! Amen.

George Hovaness Donigian is a pastor, Armenian activist, and former editor of Discipleship Resources. He lives in Greenwood, South Carolina.

This meditation is adapted from The Upper Room Disciplines: A Book of Daily Devotions, 2011, Thursday, November 24. For more information visit bookstore.upperroom.org.

How do we make people who come to our home feel welcome?

What kind of things make someone feel unwelcome? Do you think there’s anyone in your school or our neighborhood who feels unwelcome? Is there anything we can do about that?

Can you think of a time when you were new in some group or [...]]]> Conversation Starters

How do we make people who come to our home feel welcome?

What kind of things make someone feel unwelcome? Do you think there’s anyone in your school or our neighborhood who feels unwelcome? Is there anything we can do about that?

Can you think of a time when you were new in some group or some place? How did you feel? What did people do to welcome you?

What’s one thing that happened today that made you feel thankful?

One: Let us give thanks to God and praise God’s glorious name!

All: God has given us so much!

One: All we have comes from God.

All: How can we show thanks for everything we have?

One: We can be good stewards of what God has [...]]]> Let one person read 1 Chronicles 29:13-14 and another person read 1 Peter 4:10.

One: Let us give thanks to God and praise God’s glorious name!

All: God has given us so much!

One: All we have comes from God.

All: How can we show thanks for everything we have?

One: We can be good stewards of what God has given us.

All: We can give money, clothes, food, and other things to those who don’t have enough.

One: We can give our time to a busy parent, an elderly person, a younger child, or a family member who needs help.

All: We can give help to the earth by recycling, picking up litter, feeding animals, and making good use of the resources on our planet.

One: There’s a lot we can do!

All: We give because God gave to us.

Prayer: Dear God, we give thanks and praise your glorious name. Help us to be good stewards of all you give us. Amen.

Together Time

Part of stewardship involves giving because God gave to us, but that’s not all it is. Talk together about what being a good steward means. How are the people in your family stewards? Draw a picture together of ways that you are good stewards. Put it up in your home this month.