Sermonette: Let's Huddle Up in Faith! Part VI

Over the past weeks, I’ve shared about a simple five-step nightly faith practice called FAITH5.

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 these eight weeks, we are delving deep into the benefits that come from each of the five steps of FAITH5. This week, we consider the final step – BLESS one another with the sign of the cross.

Each night, following the sharing of highs and lows, families open their Bibles and read from God’s word. Then they ask the sometimes hard, but always important question, “What is God trying to say to us through this Scripture verse?” Once we have wondered aloud together and sought God’s wisdom, we move on to step four, which is to pray. Then comes the final step, the last thing families do before turning out the lights of the day.

The gift of blessing – your nightly "farewell" to your child – makes a beautiful bookend to your child’s day. And the same is true for the adults in the family. When each person turns to the other and makes the sign of the cross on one another’s foreheads, everyone is reminded whose they are. The cross reminds us of the words spoken in baptism, “You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”

Additionally, this final blessing becomes a powerful life-giving idea that is planted in your child’s mind before they go to sleep. What we think about before we fall into sleep gets repeated over and over in a growing brain, helping the message of God’s grace and love to be committed to long-term memory.

Dr. Rich Melheim, creator of FAITH5, urges families to never miss out on this vital final step of the FAITH5 saying, “Your child will be ushered off to sleep with a reinforced sense of security and self-worth, and a reminder that they belong to an awesome God who loves them and will never abandon them.”

What words should you use in the blessing? Consider a Scripture passage like Jeremiah 29:11 or Psalm 121:7-8, or simply say something like this: Mommy and Daddy will always love you, and Jesus will always love you. There is nothing you can ever do that will make Jesus or us stop loving you.

So, that is step five. Simple and powerful. Consider huddling up with your family tonight to share FAITH5. You might learn something about your child’s life and heart. You might be encouraged by God’s word. You might find solace in laying all your cares before God in prayer. And you will certainly be blessed by being marked with the sign of the cross by those who love you most. Commit to it for seven days and see what happens. What do you have to lose? Time? Your time is not lost or wasted. It is 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