FAMILY

JOURNAL GUIDE QUESTIONS

 

  1. What makes your own family different to other families?
  2. What does your family have in common with other families?
  3. Make a list of the different needs that each member of your family has, and describe how they are met.
  4. Just say you know Jesus personally. Who, in society, either in your family or otherwise, would you say would be most like Him? Why?
  5. Do you think it is easier to resolve conflict situations in a family than in other groups in society? Why or why not?
  6. What are the positive things that each member of a family can learn from being in a family, about themselves and about others? (Think of each member of any family - father, mother, son, daughter, sister , brother )
  7. Can you experience ‘family’ even if one member of the traditional family is missing? Explain.
  8. Why do you feel that a true family is called the foundation of the whole of society? (Think about what happens when families breakdown in society?)

 

Possible responses follow

What makes your own family different to other families?

  1. What does your family have in common with other families? (Problems but also friendship, concern etc )
  2. Make a list of the different needs that each member of your family has, and describe how they are met. (Love, warmth , protection, privacy, community - parents, brothers and sisters , friends also ie the wider community )
  3. Just say you know Jesus personally. Who, in society, either in your family or otherwise, would you say would be most like Him? Why? (Parents should come up here but so should brothers and sisters, friends, etc.)
  4. Do you think it is easier to resolve conflict situations in a family than in other groups in society? Why or why not? (Yes because you have to live with them, parents are there to help you solve problems with a brother for example , you understand each other better, you don’t hold grudges all the time because you know each other so well, you learn to solve conflicts with other people since you have so much practice with fighting with sisters etc, parents are more forgiving than other people in society etc ) They should be at least.
  5. What are the positive things that each member of a family can learn from being in a family, about themselves and about others? ( Think of each member of any family - father, mother, son, daughter, sister , brother ) - trust, care, forgiveness etc , that you are loved, which is the most important thing to learn - forgiven etc
  6. Can you experience ‘family’ even if one member of the traditional family is missing? Explain. (This is particularly relevant for them because not all have a nuclear family. They should see that family could be found still as long as the qualities of the family are present)
  7. Why do you feel that a true family is called the foundation of the whole of society? (Think about what happens in society when families breakdown). Without families people do not learn that they are accepted or loved, they do not value life and see it as special, or value people in the correct way because parents haven’t modelled the correct behaviour - they then turn to friends, crime - anything where they can feel part of the group, and because they don’t see themselves as special they are not independent from bad influences and follow the crowd - pack mentality. You could ask them to give examples of this

The Final step is a class definition of FAMILY (Students will see that a single parent family can still be a family especially if the bond between each member exists) and an answer to the question Why did God create families in the sense of what they truly should be?

DRAMA ACTIVTIES COULD FOLLOW IN ORDER TO EXPLORE SOME OF THE QUALITIES OF FAMILY FURTHER