Spring Branch Community Church
How to Be the Friend Everyone Wants
Nehemiah 4:14 ESV
1. Awesome families PLAY together.
What does your family like to do together?
1 Timothy 6:17 ESV
Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV
People may not remember what you say, but they will usually remember what they feel.
Ecclesiastes 9:9 ESV
Psalm 127:3 ESV
Kids spell love T-I-M-E.
2. Awesome Families Grow Together
Men are builders and cultivators
Luke 2:52 ESV
What have you learned from your family?
What do we learn from our families?
1. What to do with feelings.
2. How to handle conflict.
3. How to handle loss.
"for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity." - Proverbs 24:16
4. What values matter most.
5. Good habits.
How do families grow together?
·Through Example
·Through Conversations
"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." - Deuteronomy 6:7
· NOT Through Criticism
"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." - Ephesians 6:4
·Not Through Comparison
3. Awesome Families Protect One Another
"For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." - Matthew 5:45b
Why do you love your family so much?
Storms to Shelter our Kids From
1. Change
2. Harmful ideas
3. Rejection
4. Awesome Families Serve God and Others
Hebrews 10:24 ESV
Give
Save
Spend
How can your family serve someone this week?
Joshua 24:15b
"…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Where do you start?
Study Questions for Individuals or Groups
1. Looking back at your notes from this week’s teaching, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged, or confused you?
2. Family development occurs in an environment of lifelong learning in which everybody encourages growth in everybody else. What are some ways children can encourage their parents in physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental growth?
3. Things that can be learned only in families include how to handle feelings, how to handle conflict, how to handle loss, and what values matter most. Briefly describe one of these points that you did or did not learn as a child in your family.
4.Parents should set a good example for their children. What kinds of deeds are practical to demonstrate to children?
5. In what practical ways do you think you can teach your children about Scripture?
6. Compare the after effects of criticizing children with the aftereffects of enlightening them with love regarding their misbehavior or wrongdoing. How have you seen this make a difference in their lives and in yours.
7. What are ways family members can protect each other in storms of life such as life changes, failure, or rejection?
8. How can your family play together this week? How can you serve together? When can you pray together?
