This week in confirmation we brought together the first two lessons, Jesus' birth and Abraham and Sara, to talk about the beginnings of faith and our journey as disciples.  

Download the parents' page

Homework

• read and discuss each of the Bible passages listed on the Confrim parents' page.  What do they say to you about the faith journey?
• Select one or two activities from the parent's page or below to complete with your student or as a family.
• Use the Form Faith cards at least once each week till we meet again.

Extra ideas

• Baptism is the start of our faith Journey.  In baptism we belives that God recreates us, that we die to ourselves so that we may be raised with Christ (Romans 6:1-11).  Baptism is our beginning of our faith journey, when we are clothed in christ so that we might live in him (Galations 3:26-28).  In Baptism we affirm first God's action of grace in our lives and second our response.  If you were baptized as a child, the response first came from your parents and/or sponsors who pledged to raise you in the faith and will come from you in your confirmation when you reaffirm your baptismal vows. 
  • Read the baptismal service from our hymnal.  What were the pledges that your parents took? How do you see them living those out?  How do you plan to take them over for yourself when you are confirmed?
  • Work with your family to select some ways to remember baptismal anniversaries.  Here's a list of ideas and suggestions. 
• Stewardship is a word the church uses to talk about faithful discipleship.  Being a good steward of something means that we take care of it and use it appropriately.  Through faith we know that God has given us everything - our lives and everything in them - so being a good steward means taking care all that and using it in the way God wants.  Sometimes when we talk about stewardship we focus on what we are giving back to God, our Time (how we volunteer and when we pray or read the Bible, Talents (how we use our skills to help the church or God), Resources (how we give back from the money, possesions, and otherthings in our life); but in reality stewardhips is not just about giving back (that's part of it), but about using it all to serve and give glory to God. As an example of stewardship, read Jesus' birth naratives in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2. 
  • How are the charaters in the stories good stewards of what God has given them? 
  • Are there any who use their gifts wrongly?
  • Can you idenify if each good steward is using their time, Talents, and/or Resources?
  • How could the characters in the the stories be examples for your stewardship today?
• What does it mean to be Lutheran?  Being "Lutheran" is the same as being Christian.  As Lutherans we are one type of Christian and like all Christians we strive to follow Jesus and be his disciples.  Watch this video about what it means to Caroline to live "Lutheran" and then answer the question yourself.  
  

• When the Faith Journey Twists.  Our faith journeys and our lives rarely go where we think they should.  Sometime things happen that we don't understand.  Sometimes we're asked to do things we don't think we can do.  But God has a wonderfully strange way of working through the unexpected.

  If you would like to learn a bit more about Nelson Mangela, the following video provides a brief overview

  • How do you think that God used Mandela to change the injustice in South Africa?
  • How did Mandela do it? Did he use force? What did he use?
  • What do you think Nelson Mandela was thinking for those 27 years that he was in prison?
  • How might God have shaped Mandela during his prison time? Would Mandela been different if he hadn't been in prison?
  • Read Genesis 50:15-21.  How do you think that God used for good what others planned for harm for Mandela
  • Can you think of a time in your life where something you didn't want happened?  How might God use that for good rather than bad?
• Prayer Ideas.  There's no one way to pray.  Here are some links to different ways to pray
  • Amble United Methodist Church has a nice list of prayer ideas.
  • From the ELCA's website, there is a nice list of Prayer Resouces.
  • Creative Prayer has a list of stations that can be used as prayer ideas.
  • Labyrinths are a prayer journey or walk that is a metaphor for our faith journey.  Here's an online labyrinth.  
  • The book of Psalms is a powerful prayerbook of 150 prayers.  They span all the emotions and feelings humans have.  No matter where you are, there is a Psalm that talk about it.  Becming familiar with the book of Psalms can be really helpful so that you know which Psalm to read when you're feeling a certain way.  Another helpful technique is to read the psalm in pairs or triplets: Read one psalm and then read another 5 or 10 away from it, then again.  The psalms are often grouped so doing this will sometimes help you get a counter view of where you are.  How can both Psalms speak to you right now?  Finally it is important to remember that the Psalms, as part of the Bible, are not just our prayers to God, but also God's word to us.  Always be listining to how God is speaking to you in the Psalm you are reading.
    • Sometimes the Psalms seem like they are in a different language and are hard to relate to.  Psalm Readings by Sarah Fordham is a book that turns the psalms into quesitons, helping us to write our own.  Do this can help you claim the Psalms as your own.  Here's a sample for Psalm 10.    For an example of how a camp full of middle schoolers interpreted psalm 1, watch the following video