Sermonette: Let's Huddle Up in Faith!

This is the third article in an eight-week series by Rev. Amy Kippen, First Lutheran Church

Over the past two weeks, I’ve shared about a simple five-step nightly faith practice called FAITH5. If you missed these last weeks, no worries. Let me catch you up.

FAITH5 is a nightly ritual that helps families grow closer to one another and to God, one night at a time. All that benefit, and it only takes just a few minutes. Each night at bedtime, families “Huddle Up” to check in. Here are the five steps of the FAITH5 Home Huddle:

1. SHARE your highs and lows

2. READ a Bible verse or story

3. TALK about how the Bible verse might relate to your highs and lows

4. PRAY together

5. BLESS one another with the sign of the cross

Over the span of eight weeks, we will be delving deep into the blessing that comes from each of the five steps of FAITH5.

This week, we consider step two – READ a bible verse or story. Each night following the sharing of highs and lows, families open their bibles and read from God’s word. Consider taking turns sharing favorite verses or perhaps ask family members or a friend to share their favorites. Google “daily bible verses” or use the text from last Sunday’s sermon. Experiment with reading a new verse every night, or sticking with the same verse for a whole week. Look for ways that the verse comes to life and speaks to you differently from day to day. After all, scripture is the living word of God, which guarantees that it will be relevant to your daily highs and lows.

And, as we consider the world our children are growing up in, we cannot but acknowledge the negative messages of our 24-hour news cycle and our non-stop interaction with social media. Perhaps now, more than ever before, our children are in desperate need of the word of God. Scripture is filled with promises that actually create hope in a world where hope can seem fleeting. How could a daily dose of that not change who our kids become for good?

When we raise our children in a home where we daily turn to God’s word, the bible becomes accessible. Rather than scripture being something that sits on our shelves, something that rarely connects to our lived experience, scripture becomes a part of who we are and how we see the world. God’s love is experienced in our daily lives, and God’s guidance heeded one verse at a time. So, pick a verse, any verse, and ask God to make it come alive and speak to your highs and lows.

So, that is step two. Three more steps to come in these next weeks. Consider huddling up with your family tonight to share steps one and two of FAITH5. SHARE your highs and lows and READ a Bible verse or story. Commit to it for seven days and see what happens. You might learn something about your child’s life and heart, and you will certainly be encouraged by God’s word. And really, what do you have to lose? Time? Nah. Your time is not lost or wasted. It is invested, invested in God’s preferred future for your family.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

To learn more about FAITH5 Home Huddles, go to http://www.faith5.org