Day 104: Optimism

Daily Sheet: Day 104: Optimism

Family Book: “Four Feet, Two Sandals”

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Travel: Afghanistan

Video: Sara Groves introduces “Floodplain” and talks about the role of positive thinking in our lives

Song: “Floodplain” – Sara Groves

Some hearts are built on a floodplain, keeping one eye on the sky for rain.  You work for the ground that gets washed away when you live closer…

Closer to the life and the ebb and flow, closer to the edge of I don’t know, closer to that’s the way it goes…  Some hearts are built on a floodplain.

And it’s easy to sigh on a high bluff, look down and ask when you’ve had enough.  Will you have the sense to come on up or will you stay closer?

Closer to the danger and the rolling deep, closer to the run and the losing streak and what brings us to our knees…  Some hearts live here.

Oh the river it rushes to madness and the water it spreads like sadness and there’s no high ground.  Closer to the danger and the rolling deep, closer to the run and the losing streak and what brings us to our knees…

Closer to the life and the ebb and flow, closer to the edge of I don’t know, closer to Lord please send a boat…  Some hearts are built here.

Video: “Brighter Day” – Gungor (drum cover)

Love came down and hope was found; Now we’re waking up to a brighter day.

Questions:

  • Do you like today’s story?  Does it make sense to you?  Why or why not?
  • Explain Ecclesiastes 11:4.
  • What is a floodplain?  What does Sara Groves mean when she says “some hearts live there”?  Do you think that means these people are optimistic or pessimistic?
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Day 102: Benevolence

Daily Sheet: Day 102: Benevolence

Family Book: “If the World Were a Village”

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Travel: Gabon

Map: Mary Kingsley’s Travels

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (talking about her inspiration behind writing this song)

In Psalm 84:11 we read, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  Sir Richard Baker comments, “But how is this true, when God so oftentimes withholds riches and honor and health of body from men, though they walk ever so uprightly?  We may therefore know that honors and riches and bodily strength are none of God’s good things, and the good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, fruition of God’s presence, and a vision of His face in the next.  These good things God never withholds from the Godly.”

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (live acoustic performance)

I believe in a blessing I don’t understand.  I’ve seen rain fall on wicked and the just.  Rain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain, that broken find healing in love.
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a fountain that will never dry, though I’ve thirsted and didn’t have enough.  Thirst is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I will open my hands, will open my heart.

I am nodding my head, an emphatic “Yes!” to all that You have for me.

Questions:

  • Do you think Sir Richard Baker is right?
  • Why does Sara Groves say, “I believe in a blessing I don’t understand”?
  • Why, if God is faithful, do people experience drought, pain, and thirst?
  • What is our role in all this?
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Day 99: Freedom

Daily Sheet: Day 99: Freedom

Family Book: “Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation”

Family Book: “You Are Special”

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Travel: Nebraska; Kansas

Video: “Set You Free” – Nomos

If you did, if you did, even if you did…  Been where you shouldn’t have been, Seen what you shouldn’t have seen, Dreamed what you shouldn’t have dreamed, that doesn’t mean you have to be locked up here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Done what you shouldn’t have done, Run when you shouldn’t have run, Lost when you shouldn’t have won, that doesn’t mean you have to be paying the price forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, only if you did…  Strayed from the beaten track, Maybe you never got back, Went in off the black, that doesn’t mean you have to be lying around here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
Ah if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Suffered from a broken heart, Got off to a poor start, Maybe you fell apart, that doesn’t mean you have to be paying the price forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Known what you shouldn’t have known, Shown what you shouldn’t have shown, Thrown what you shouldn’t have thrown, that doesn’t mean you have to be lying around here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
Ah if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Been where you shouldn’t have been, Seen what you shouldn’t have seen, Dreamed what you shouldn’t have dreamed, that doesn’t mean you have to be locked up here forever.  I’m going to set you free.

Video: “Deliverer” – Audrey Assad

You are not possessive, You respect all things
You are not invasive, You have no envy
You are not insistent, You do not force me
You are not controlling, You make me free indeed

You’re my deliverer, You’re my deliverer.  You won’t pass me by.

Your law is freedom and mercy is Your rule
Though You dwell within me, I can’t contain You

In the ruins of my heart, You preach to the poor
Turning over stones to show me there is more
More than all I ask, more than I’m looking for
In the ruins of my heart

Video: “Land of the Living” – Roo Panes

Where they go
That we shall cherish and that I wrestle
Don’t want to be like the dust that settles
This empire of nothing
I find that I’m king of all these empty homes
That are ruled by my own flaws
But you can’t be an old fire
If you are burning with a new flame

So remember that, you are never a forgotten name
Cause I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
I hear the voices of my childhood singing it’s the world beyond those doorways
Where we use to play

Cause every moment
Is a chance to define what you want to become
You’re not a slave to things you’ve done
Be brave and be bold
Be childish and old it’s the same old story
Every life needs a hope of glory
But you can’t be an old fire
If you’re burning with a new flame

I was born to be free, you were born to free me

Cause I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
I hear the voices of my childhood singing it’s the world beyond those doorways
Where we use to play
I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
Oh we’ll go back, we’ll go back to the beginning
And we’ll pick up on the trails of forgotten ways

Song: “Finally” – Gungor

Call me back into the silence, into the sunlight.

Every breath a standing defiance of death and of clamor; Let darkness be scattered now.

I’ll be here waiting in silence, waiting for sunlight to make all the world shine bright.

All the stars fall in line and the seas bow their heads.  We remember our dead and we sing another day.

As the silence, it grows and the worlds fade away; All the sons empty their graves.

We will sing another day.

Questions:

  • Compare and contrast physical, emotional and spiritual freedom
  • Can you find examples in today’s lesson where faith in Christ has brought each of these types of freedom to someone?
  • Explain what you think is meant by the line, “I was born to be free; you were born to free me.”
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Day 97: Tolerance

Daily Sheet: Day 97: Tolerance

Family Book: “The Relatives Came”

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Travel: Seychelles; Mauritius

Song: “When It Was Over” – Sara Groves (with lyrics)

Oh love wash over a multitude of things, love wash over a multitude of things, love wash over a multitude of things; Make us whole.

There is love that never fails; There is a healing that always prevails; There is a hope that whispers a vow, a promise to stay while we’re working it out, so come with your love and wash over us.

Questions:

  • What are some different meanings of the word “tolerance”?
  • What is the difference between tolerance and acceptance?
  • What are some things we should not tolerate?  Why not?
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Day 93: Kindness

Daily Sheet: Day 93: Kindness

Family Book: “The Watcher”

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Travel: Zimbabwe

Video: “All the Ways You Wander” – John Spillane

…And if you take the long way, if you take the long way home, down where the magicians and the dreamers roam, through the mountains of morning, through the valleys of night, searching for the island of your heart’s delight,

I’ll wait for you, like a true friend.  I’ll wait for you, ’til the very end.

Video: “Kindness”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helps Homeless People in Los Angeles”

“I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Video: “14 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Elliot Katz, the boy in the last three videos above, was inspired in part to form his charity organization, ReachingOutCalifornia, by the following verse:

“And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” – Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Yerushalmi Talmud.  

Put in context, the passage reads as follows: 

…We find in regard to Cain, who killed his brother, “The bloods of your brother scream out!” (Genesis 4:10) – the verse does not say blood of your brother, but bloods of your brother, because it was his blood and also the blood of his future offspring [screaming out]!  [The judges’ speech continues] “It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.”

Questions:

  • The Talmud, from which the Mishnah Sanhedrin passage is taken, is a Jewish writing.  Compare these verses to Jesus’s words as recorded in Luke 9:24: 

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  (New Living Translation – NLT)

  • “The Watcher” is written as a poem.  Describe the format.

 

 

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Day 91: Acceptance

Daily Sheet: Day 91: Acceptance

Family Book: “Leo the Lop”

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Travel: Botswana

Video: “One Faith” – John Michael Talbot & Michael Card

He is the good Shepherd and He’s laid down his life for His sheep, so out of many nations He’s gathered one fold and one faith;

And He has built His church on the rock foundation of faith, on apostles and prophets who shepherd the people in His place.

And He gave to Simon Peter and to all the twelve the keys of the Kingdom so darkness shall never prevail

But some of the shepherds have pastured themselves on their sheep, so He has come out against them and scattered His people of faith.

In good pasture He will shepherd His people; On the mountain top He feeds His sheep.  He will heal the poor and afflicted; To the prisoner He brings release.

Yet He’ll not forsake His people; He’ll claim His sheep for His own.  He’ll send out His Word to the nations, regather His people back home,

For He is the good Shepherd.  He’s laid down His life for His sheep, so out of many nations He’s gathered one fold and one faith.

There is one faith, one hope, and one baptism, One God and Father of all.  There is one church, one body, one life in the Spirit now given so freely to all.

Questions:

  • What does it mean to “Accept one another… just as Christ accepted you”?
  • Put Leviticus 19:34 into today’s terms.
  • What does John Michael Talbot’s song, “One Faith,” have to do with acceptance?
  • Discuss the significance of John Michael Talbot’s (biography here) and Michael Card’s (biography here) collaboration on this project.

 

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Day 89: Empathy

Daily Sheet: Day 89: Empathy

Family Book: “The Long March: The Chocktaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief”

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Travel: Oklahoma; Texas

Song: “Why It Matters” – Sara Groves (with lyrics)

Sit with me and tell me once again of the story that’s been told us, of the power that will hold us, of the beauty, of the beauty, Why it matters.

Speak to me until I understand why our thinking and creating, why our efforts of narrating about the beauty, of the beauty, And why it matters.

Like the statue in the park of this war torn town, and its protest of the darkness and the chaos all around, with its beauty, how it matters, How it matters.

Show me the love that never fails, the compassion and attention midst confusion and dissension, like small ramparts for the soul, How it matters.

Like a single cup of water, How it matters.

Questions:

  • Compare “empathy” to “sympathy.”  Which is more meaningful?  Why?
  • Why do you think the story of Jesus raising the widow’s son was chosen for “Empathy” rather than for “Compassion?”
  • Think about the story of “The Long March” while you re-read the bolded lines at the end of Sara Groves’ song, “Why It Matters.”  How do you think the Chocktaw’s act of kindness, inspired by empathy, might have built “small ramparts for the soul”?  And what is the “single cup of water” reference?
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Day 71: Goodness

Daily Sheet: Day 71: Goodness

Family Book: “Bless the Lord: The 103rd Psalm”

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Travel: Federated States of Micronesia

Hymn: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Fernando Ortega

Video: “Add to the Beauty” – Sara Groves

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Day 67: Gratitude

Daily Sheet: Day 67: Gratitude

Family Book: “Moonlight on the Amazon”

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Travel: Brazil

Hymn: It Is Well

Video: “Something Changed” – Sara Groves

Song: “Grace For Me” – Gungor (with Portuguese subtitles)

Listen for and discuss the following lyrics:

“Valleys come and tears are drying.  There are things I don’t yet see.  But I’ll rejoice in spite of hardship.  You’ll watch over me.  Your grace for me is all I need; all I need is here.”

Video: “How Great Thou Art” – The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir  (This takes the Cheesiest Video Cake.  My kids love it, though.)

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Day 64: Courtesy

Daily Sheet: Day 64: Courtesy

Family Book: “Plume”

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Travel: Puerto Rico; St. Kitts and Nevis; Antigua and Barbuda; Dominica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Barbados; Grenada; Trinidad and Tobago

Song: “Rewrite This Tragedy” – Sara Groves

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