Rhythm: Passion

Session Four (Jan. 29)

It's difficult to be passionate about others if you are out of rhythm with God. Following Jesus means being passionate about what He is passionate about--and Jesus is passionate about people. So if we want to be in rhythm, we not only have to be in sync with God and ourselves, we also have to be in sync with others. 

Session Four Parent Cue: No person can have a life in rhythm if they are not at peace with the people around them. In the final week of this series students will be challenged to be in rhythm with others, to be passionate about serving those they encounter and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation when needed. 

How can you work at making this a regular practice in your family? 

Rhythm: Discovery

Session Three 
You’ve heard the words before--“love your neighbor as yourself”--but most of the time we don’t really hear the second half of that. We don’t love ourselves. Perhaps it’s because it just seems wrong. After all, as followers of Christ, we are supposed to become less as He becomes more. But for some of us, somewhere along the way we’ve confused humility with self-hatred. If we feel like we aren't good enough or can be loved because we have messed up too much, it's because we have forgot about or stopped focusing on the WONDER of who God is and that He does love us. 

RHYTHM WITH GOD HELPS US DISCOVER WHO WE ARE

Session Three Parent Cue: This week students will be challenged to think about how they view themselves. How we view God our Creator affects how we view His creation, ourselves. They will consider the masks they wear and the faults they try to cover up, and they'll receive a challenge to use their gifts, given to them by God, to discover who they are. Talk openly and candidly with your student this week about the things both of you have a hard time accepting when it comes to the faults you see in yourself. How can you better accept yourselves as you are? 

This week: Come serve as a family during Winter Sanctuary

Rhythm: WONDER

Session Two

If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve heard it all and seen it all. You know the stories. You know the songs. You know the words. Many of us even think we know all about God. We think we have Him figured out. We think we know everything about Him, and in our lives, He’s very small. But the reality is that we will never fully grasp how awesome and amazing He is. We can spend a lifetime in awe and wonder, and even an eternity, because He’s that big . . . and that good.

Session Two Parent Cue: This second week, students were challenged to look at God in new ways. Many times we find that we are so familiar with “churchy” descriptions of God that we forget who He really is. And when we forget who God is, how awesome and surprising He can be, then we are tempted to turn our attention and affection to other things and our lives fall out of tune. In week two students were challenged to discover a God who is bigger than our attempts to define Him. 

Discuss with your teen ways that God has surprised you and your family with how big He is. 

Rhythm: The Song

In the beginning, God created a song, a rhythm. Humanity existed in harmony with God, with ourselves and with each other. But then humankind settled for another song--a lesser one--and the rhythm started falling apart. Yet even then, God didn’t walk away, and because of that, we have a way to restore the rhythm with Him, with ourselves and with others.

Session One Parent Cue: The first week of the Rhythm series is designed to help students understand that in the beginning, God established a rhythm. We unpacked the story of creation and the harmony that existed between Adam and God, Adam and nature, and Adam and Eve. We stated that from the start, everything worked together in perfect harmony like a beautiful song. But then Adam and Eve made a choice that destroyed the song and threw the rhythm off. We looked at God’s response to Adam’s sin, and we saw that God continues to seek relationship with us even after things have fallen apart. 


Finally, we challenged them to memorize Micah 6:8. 

Take out some note-cards, write the verse out, and then post it in places where you both can remember it. 

Challenge each other to have it memorized by next Sunday as we walk through helping students join in the song of WONDER, DISCOVERY, & PASSION over the next 3 weeks!