WHAT IS FAITH5?

Build reflective, resilient children and solid family relationships with these five easy-to-implement steps in five to fifteen minutes each night. Share a high and low of the day. Read a Bible verse or story. Talk about how God’s Word might relate to your highs and lows. Pray for one another’s highs and lows. Close each night with a special blessing.

SHARE

What does it do for a child to share both highs and lows in the context of a loving family or a group of trusted friends? How might the sharing of joys and hurts, concerns and dreams, values and faith enrich a family?

READ

Explore the power of God's Word. How might including Bible verses or stories in the bedtime routine enrich a child's faith, emotional health and spiritual imagination?

TALK

What happens when God's Word is applied to the highs and lows of each day? What does it do to a child, a parent, a family to come together nightly seeking God's wisdom and will?

PRAY

What happens when people pray? How does prayer change the situation? How does prayer change you? What happens to children who grow up with their highs and lows brought to God in prayer every night of their lives? What happens to children who grow up praying for their parents?

BLESS

What happens when a child goes to sleep every night knowing they are loved, safe and blessed? What happens to children who bless their parents every night? What does blessing do to the blesser? To the blessee? To the world?

A Final Blessing

At 92, Pastor Ray was suffering from dementia and his body was fading away. He hadn’t engaged in a clear conversation with his son, Dr. Rich, for years. Then, at a 4th of July picnic, Pastor Ray noticed the cast on Rich’s broken arm. The Pastor began to massage the cast and pray for the break. Rich grabbed his video camera and recorded a surprisingly wonderful conversation, and his father’s final blessing.