3 Ingredients for Working with God (Take-Home Activity for Parents and Kids)

Small Group Study / Produced by partner of TOW

This lesson is part of God's Story of Work for Kids, a 12-week curriculum that teaches children to see work through God's perspective.

THIS WEEK'S FOCUS: Working WITH and for god means doing work with faith, hope and love.

This week we learned that God seeks relationship with us. Rather than us working for him, he desires that we work with him. Three things that can help us approach work with God are doing work with faith, hope and love. In faith, we invite God into our work believing God desires to be present and active in all work - no matter how ordinary or small. In hope, we believe that God can do more with the work we do, those we work with and the situations we are in, beyond our efforts. God can do more than we imagine. As we work with love, we partner with God in being His presence in that work. Work with love leaves quite a different taste than work done as rote or without love.

DO THIS WEEK'S WORKOUT: how to do hard things

Have each family member think about the work they do. What is one task that has been particularly hard - that has been difficult to see God in? It could be something ordinary you do like a chore, or a challenging situation with other people. Agree as a family to approach that task this week with the following plan:

Before starting the task, pray and invite God into it
If there are difficult people or situations involved, remind yourself of the truth of what God can do in this situation, ex: "God, you see and delight in my co-worker. You desire more than anyone to see a healthy workplace. Nothing is impossible for you. The work I do today counts for you and for eternity." (It helps to pray this out loud.)
Work with love - work as if doing this for Jesus
Reflect immediately after the work - pause for a couple of minutes. How did it go? Where did you see God? What struggles came up for you and why? Confess to God if there is any sin to share and ask his help. Joy, freedom and deeper partnership with God come from being honest with our struggles, seeing what causes them and bringing them to God who can work in these areas as we invite him.

Talk about it: How did the week go? Has anything changed? If so, what are the changes? If not, what do you think is the reason for this

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Image by ambermb / Pixabay. Used with Permission.

Written by Helen C. Kim, D.Min. With gratitude to Rev. Orlando Rivera, PhD, and the Center for Transformative Work (CTW) - a Kern Family Grant recipient. This work owes its launch to Deborah M. Gill, PhD. Thanks to Christie Winkler and Christine Bialaszewski for edits and insights.