FFWPU USA Blessing and Family Ministry: Exciting Families Project Website — Mary Anglin

Family Ministry is launching a resource called, “The Family Project”. Its aim is to give parents access to easy, meaningful and intentional family time ideas for a whole year! It is a healthy blend of faith-based activities and non-faith based activities. We want this to be a useful and meaningful resource for every young family in America regardless of their current faith level.

Each month has a new theme and every week there is an activity that pairs with the monthly theme. The first five months’ themes are below to give you an idea.

January- God Language February- Family meals March- Communication April- New Beginnings May- Service

Here is the website where you can find everything to participate and learn more. Families can sign up to receive a monthly reminder with weekly family idea prompts. We will be sharing on various social media platforms and young parents’ groups.

Sincerely, Katherine Anglin Family Ministry FFWPU

THE FAMILY PROJECT

The Family Project is here to help you make 2023 a meaningful year for your family with curated intentional activities that will encourage connection and growth.

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JOIN THE FAMILY PROJECT

Join us for a year of monthly themes & weekly activities

As Family Federation, we aim to bring peace to the world through intentional, inter-familial relationships centered on God. We believe the family is the core of our existence. We understand life with little ones can be quite busy! Between work, drop-offs, sports, making dinner, bath time, sleepless nights and keeping up with all the laundry, intentional time together as a family can fall to the wayside. The Family Project, an initiative of the Family Ministry of Family Federation USA, will take the mental load off your shoulders by sending you intentionally curated weekly activities to make sure this year with your family is the best and most meaningful one yet!

How It Works

• Each month consists of weekly activities that you can download here or receive via email • Fit the activities to your lifestyle - do it at your own pace and in your own creative way • If you ever need to skip an activity, no problem! You know your family best

January February

JANUARY ACTIVITIES COMING SOON

March April May

COMING SOON COMING SOON COMING SOON

JOIN IN ON THE FUN

Sign up for our monthly reminder! You’ll receive an email at the beginning of the month with the monthly theme and weekly activities.

“We are born in the bosom of the family and we grow within the family. The family is our origin, our starting point and our school of love.” Rev. Sun Myung Moon Cheon Seong Gyeong

The Family Project is a project of FFWPU USA © BLESSING & FAMILY MINISTRY

J A N U A R Y GOD LANGUAGE

Everyone has a different way they connect with God on a personal level. Discover more about your family’s unique “God language.”

Parents, take the God languages quiz. Have a conversation with your children about when you feel closest to God. Sample script: “Hey mom and dad took this quiz, today. Want to know what we got?” Introduce the idea that everyone connects to God in their own special way.

Take the love languages test for kids. Help each of your kids take this test. Discover what their love language is and use it as a tool to connect to your child more intentionally.

Based on what you learned last week about how your kids receive love, plan with your spouse how you can love your child(ren) in their specific love language intentionally three times this week.

Have a conversation about love. Here are some questions you can ask your kids at bedtime, in the car or at a meal:

How can you tell someone loves you? How do you feel when people show you love? How do you think others feel when you show them love? How can we use our heart to love others? Do you sometimes feel God’s love? How? Or how can we look for God’s love?

FEBRUARY THEME: FAMILY MEALS

Click on the answer box to reveal Spiritual Temperament Assessment the dropdown list. Then choose the number that matches your resonse.

1. I feel closest to God when I’m surrounded by what he has made (mountains, forests, oceans).

2. I feel closest to God when I’m in a church that allows my senses to come alive. I feel closest to God when I’m participating in a familiar form of worship that has memories dating back to 3. my childhood.

4. I feel closest to God when I am alone and there is nothing to distract me from focusing on his presence.

5. I feel closest to God when I am cooperating with him in standing up for his justice. I feel God’s presence most strongly when I am sitting quietly by the bed of someone who is lonely or ill or 6. when I am taking a meal to someone in need.

7. I feel closest to God when my heart is sent soaring and I feel like I want to worship God all day long. I would rather be alone with God contemplating his love than participating in a formal liturgy or being 8. distracted by a walk outside.

9. I feel closest to God when I learn something new about him that I didn’t understand before.

10. I feel cut off if I have to spend too much time indoors.

11. I enjoy attending a “high church” service with candles and formal Communion.

12. I begin to feel closest to God when I lay something on the altar, sacrificing it for him.

13. I would describe my faith as more “internal” than “external.”

14. I get very frustrated if I see apathetic Christians who don’t become active. I grow weary of Christians who spend their time singing songs while a family in need doesn’t get help 15. fixing their car. I don’t understand how some Christians can say they love God, and then act like they’re going to a funeral 16. whenever they walk into church.

17. The most difficult times in my faith are when I can’t feel God’s presence within me.

18. I get frustrated when the church focuses too much on feelings and spiritual experience.

19. I would rather worship God by spending an hour beside a small brook than by participating in a group.

20. I’d have a difficult time worshiping in a church building that is plain and lacks a sense of awe or majesty.

21. The words tradition and history are very appealing to me.

22. Taking a retreat by myself at a monastery for one or more days is something I would enjoy.

23. The terms courageous confrontation and social activism are very appealing to me. I sense God’s power when I am counseling a friend who has lost a job or spending a week at an orphanage 24. in Mexico.

25. I expect that God is going to move in some unexpected ways.

Spiritual Temperament Assessment

Use the following scoring method to answer each question: 3 = Always 2 = Occasionally *Please enter your response in the column located to the right of each question. 1 = Rarely True Once complete, your results will be available on page 2 of this assessment. 0 = Never I really enjoy having thirty minutes of uninterrupted time each day to sit in quiet prayer and “hold hands” 26. with God.

27. I feel close to God when I participate in several hours of uninterrupted study time. If I could walk through a meadow on a warm day and take a trip by myself to the mountains on another 28. day, I would be happy. I’m naturally drawn to museums and concerts more than I’m inclined to take a walk in the woods, work in 29. a soup kitchen, or read a book by myself. Participating in a formal liturgy or “prayer book” service, or developing a Christian calendar for our family 30. to follow are activities I would enjoy.

31. I would enjoy reading the book A Place Apart: Monastic Prayer and Practice for Everyone. Activities such as attending a meeting of the local school board to challenge a new curriculum is 32. important to me.

33. A book titled 99 Ways to Help Your Neighbor would be very appealing to me.

34. I would enjoy reading the book The Mystery and Excitement of Walking with God.

35. I would enjoy reading The Transforming Friendship.

36. A book on church doctrine would be appealing to me.

37. Seeing God’s beauty in nature is more moving to me than participating in social causes. I would really enjoy using drawing exercises or classical music playing in the background to improve my 38. prayer life.

39. I would really enjoy developing a personal rule (or ritual) of prayer.

40. I would really enjoy spending time on a night watch, taking a short vow of silence, simplifying my life. I would rather stand in the rain for an hour to confront an evil than sit in a room by myself for an hour and 41. pray.

42. I would rather help someone repair their house than teach an adult Sunday-school class.

43. I spend more money on music and worship downloads than on books.

44. When I think of God, I think of love, friendship, and adoration more than anything else.

45. I spend more money on books than music.

Spiritual Temperament Assessment

MY SCORES 0 0 0 0 Naturalist Sensate Loving God Out Of Doors: Naturalists’ hearts open up to God when they Loving God With the Senses: Sensates are more aesthetically inclined. get outdoors. God seems more real to them when they’re hiking under These are the artistic types, and they prefer creative and original a big expanse of sky or at least sitting under a tree. music or even good architecture to open their hearts to God’s presence. Their worship is about seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: and even tasting God’s presence. • Take your Bible outside and read it; meditate while feasting your eyes and spirit on natural beauty SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: • Work your way through one of Dr. Pamela Reeve’s books • Listen to worship-producing music • Take a nap in the sunshine. • Absorb worship-producing art • Lead a family group at church camp • Sing scripture • Worship at dawn or sunset • Create a worship space for yourself: light a candle, set out • Go for a walk meaningful articles, e.g., a cross. • Use a “pocket piece” (Cross, rock from Israel, etc.) • Enter into a scripture passage. Be one of the characters. Experience the passage.

0 0 0 0 Traditionalist Ascetic Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol: Traditionalists find great Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity: Ascetics meet God internally. meaning by worshiping God according to set patterns - their own or They prefer to shut out the world and meet God in solitude and historical ones. They may organize their life around scheduled times of austerity. For ascetics, the best environment for personal worship is a prayer and may even choose to carefully observe the Christian quiet place with a rather orderly environment, and they usually don’t calendar, aligning themselves with centuries of faith. Traditionalists like the distractions of group worship. They are often advocates of all- often make good use of Christian symbols. night prayer vigils and many of the classical disciplines, such as fasting and meditation. SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES • Contemplate the three elements of the traditionalist pathway. SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES • Read Scripture aloud. • Worship in the quiet of the night; Rise in the early morning for • Select a Psalm to say every morning and one for each evening; prayer and worship Practice liturgical prayer (see Book of Common Prayer) • Practice silence – attend a silent retreat, participate in a silent meal • Set a regular time and place to meet with the Lord each day. • Fast; do physical labor as an act of worship • Follow the Church calendar and celebrate significant days, e.g. • Practice obedience – ask God to reveal any rebellious attitudes Pentecost, Advent • Simplify your life – clean a closet, have a yard sale, cull your books • Develop meaningful rituals; Make plentiful use of symbols or and papers ritualized gestures • Look for ways and places to include others in your life. • Make it a point to worship regularly in a fellowship of believers.

0 0 0 0 Activist Caregiver Loving God Through Confrontation: Activists meet God in the vortex of Loving God by Loving Others: Caregivers love God by loving others. confrontation. They want to fight God’s battles. God becomes most real Providing care or meeting needs in Jesus’ name spiritually energizes to them when they are standing up for justice or working on the caregivers and draws them closer to the Lord. frontlines to build God’s kingdom. SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: • “Adopt” someone – a prisoner, neighborhood child or elderly • Consider God’s faithfulness in the light of so much undone in the person; Open your home to students, neighborhood kids world. Consider His great patience. He is working even when we see • Help a friend through a crisis, counsel at a crisis pregnancy center no evidence of it. Don’t give up. • Work in the inner city, e.g. Mission Year (Bart Campolo) • Ponder John 4:34 • Mentor a teen parent through Parent Life. • Seek to develop tact, gentleness, persuasiveness, true love for others. • Help someone battling substance abuse Seek a mentor. • Volunteer on a rescue squad, work in a soup kitchen • Invest energy in: producing and transmitting literature; social reform; “marches”; prayer walks; food pantries; crisis pregnancy center. Be creative. • Thoroughly research any activity before joining it. Ask God for wisdom first. Seek counsel, confirmation and accountability. • Consider carefully the outcomes you desire from your efforts. • Develop your ability for self-examination and contemplation of God.

Spiritual Temperament Assessment

0 0 0 0 Enthusiast Contemplative Loving God with Mystery and Celebration: Enthusiasts like the Loving God Through Adoration: Contemplatives are marked by an excitement and celebration of group worship and probably buy more emotional attachment and surrender to God. They are God’s lovers, praise CDs than books. They feed off the enthusiasm of other believers and they want to spend their time in God’s presence — adoring Him, and typically revel in God’s mystery and supernatural power. Their listening to Him and enjoying Him. They often find benefit in journal exuberance tends to lead them to embrace creative forms of worship. writing, where they can explore their heart’s devotion.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES • Keep track of your night-time dreams. Write down any that seem • Make use of the Jesus prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have significant. The meanings should be fairly obvious to you. Talk with mercy on me”) many times throughout the day. someone about them. • Practice secret acts of devotion – something you do for someone • Spend time just listening to God. Write down what you hear Him else without letting anyone else know about it. saying. • Carry a pocket piece – something tactile to remind you Who you • Cultivate the mystery of expectancy: ask God to bring someone in serve, e.g. a small cross. your path to whom you can minister; Start a conversation with a • Dancing Prayer – allowing God to lead and follow Him wherever stranger. He takes you. Allow Him to speak and place requests before you. • Spend time with children: lead music at children’s church; act out • Centering Prayer – Choose a word and focus on it (Jesus, God, Bible stories for them. peace, etc.) repeating it until it becomes a part of you. This is not • Use your imagination to put yourself into the scene when you are “new age”’; it is a way to close oneself in with God, away from reading Bible passages. Try to understand how the participants distractions. You are resting in God’s presence. were feeling, thinking, acting. • Prayer of the Heart – “focuses on emotional attachment to, or • Use your imagination to consider how you might act on the adoration or, God. …Its aim is to love God, to have our hearts teaching of the Scriptures, e.g., the Beatitudes; teachings about enlarged so that God owns more and more of us.” (187) forgiveness; tithing. • Meditative Prayer – this is prayerful reflection of a biblical text or • Be part of a strong church that holds its members accountable. Ask theme, use of something you can see, taste, touch, hear or smell. for a prayer partner or a mentor. (Lecto Divina; placing yourself in the passage )

0 0 Intellectual Loving God with the Mind: Intellectuals really like books — even the reference kind — and live in the world of concepts. They want to come out of their devotional time with new understanding. If their mind isn’t engaged, their heart may feel cold.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES • Study the basic disciplines of theological training Print this assessment • Invest in biblical study: reading through Scripture; meticulous study of portions of Scripture; for your records. • Read books that help understand what Scripture says - books on theology; books on church history. • Do a year-long in-depth study of one topic • Listen to theology tapes/CDs while driving – Mars Hill tapes are very good. • Study the seven basic topics in systematic theology: God, humankind, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, eschatology, and Scripture/revelation. • Gain understanding of both internal and external apologetics.

5 L VE LANGUAGES

Q U I Z : Ck iidr c) l ien tehaec sht as teet m . ent that most accurately describes you (or your

1. I like to get kind notes and texts. I like to be hugged.

2. I like to spend one-on-one time with people who are special to me. I feel appreciated when someone gives me practical help.

3. I like it when kind words are spoken to me. I like being with and doing activities with friends and family.

4. What someone does affects me more than what he or she says. Hugs make me feel connected and valued.

5. I value praise and avoid criticism. Several small gifts mean more to me than one large gift.

6. I feel close to someone when we are talking or doing something together. I feel closer to friends or family when they touch me often.

7. I like when people compliment the things I do well. I know people love me when they do things for me that they don’t like doing.

8. Kind words mean a lot to me. I know someone loves me when he or she helps me.

9. I like to spend time with friends and family. I like to receive little gifts from friends and family.

10. Gifts are symbols of love that are important to me. I feel loved when people say nice things to me.

11. I feel loved when someone I’m close to puts an arm around me. I feel loved when I receive a gift from someone I’m close to.

f r o m h t t p s : // w w w . 5 l o v e l a n g u a g e s . c o m /p r o fi l e / ? c h i l d # d i s c o v e r y - c h i l d

12. I like it when people give me gifts. I really enjoy hanging out with people close to me.

13. I like when my friends and family greet me with a hug. I like it when people listen to me and show genuine interest in what I’m saying.

14. I feel loved when friends and family help me with jobs or projects. I really enjoy receiving gifts from friends and family.

15. I enjoy when people compliment my appearance. I feel loved when people take time to understand my feelings.

16. I feel safe when someone close to me is touching me. Acts of service make me feel loved.

17. I appreciate the many little things that people do for me. I value gifts that people make for me.

18. I really like the experience of one-on-one, undivided attention. I really enjoy it when someone does some act of service for me.

19. I feel loved when people touch me. I feel loved when people do things to help me.

20. I like to receive a gift for my birthday. I like when someone speaks meaningful words to me on my birthday.

21. I know someone is thinking of me when he or she gives me a gift. I feel loved when someone helps me with my chores.

22. I like to go places with people I’m close to. When I like someone, I make contact with the person (hug, shove, high five, etc.)

23. I like it when someone listens patiently and doesn’t interrupt me. I like it when someone remembers special days with a gift.

24. I like knowing that people are concerned enough to help with my daily tasks. I enjoy full-day adventures or trips with someone close to me.

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25. Getting a kiss from a parent makes me feel loved. Getting a gift for no special reason from a parent makes me feel loved.

26. I like to be told that I’m appreciated. I like for people to look at me when we’re talking.

27. I like to sit close to people I enjoy being with. I appreciate when someone tells me how attractive I am.

28. Gifts from people I’m close to are always special to me. I feel good when someone I’m close to touches me.

29. I feel loved when someone enthusiastically does some task I’ve requested. I feel loved when I’m told how much I’m appreciated.

30. I need to me touched every day. I need words of affirmation every day.

PHYSICAL WORDS OF ACTS OF QUALITY TIME GIFTS TOUCH AFFIRMATION SERVICE

Total #: __ Total #: __ Total #: __ Total #: __ Total #: __

Primary Love Language:

Secondary Love Language:

t a k e t h e q u i z o n l i n e a t h t t p s : // w w w . 5 l o v e l a n g u a g e s . c o m /p r o - fi l e / ? c h i l d # d i s c o v e r y - c h i l d learn more about the 5 love languages in the renowned books by Gary Chapman: The 5 Love Languages and the 5 Love Languages of C h i l d r e n o r o n t h e w e b s i t e a t h t t p s : // w w w . 5 l o v e l a n g u a g e s . c o m /

5 L VE LANGUAGES WORDS OF GIFTS ACTS OF PHYSICAL TOUCH QUALITY TIME A F F I R M AT I O N SERVICE

clues that this might clues that this might clues that this might clues that this might clues that this might be your kid: be your kid: be your kid: be your kid: be your kid: is known as “the is fueled by praise, asks to tag along or loves presents and loves having your snuggler ”, wants to show you stay up late with surprises, has a lot help, surprises you loves being carried t h e t h i n g s h e /s h e you, wants you to of “special” things, by doing small a n d /o r p h y s i c a l has done, loves to w a t c h w h i l e h e /s h e older kids may be household tasks for rough-housing, talk and tells you performs, likes you particular about you, loves being unintentionally too every detail of the to sit with them brands or certain given responsibility rough with others day while they play fl a v o r s o r s m e l l s

enjoys: enjoys: enjoys: enjoys: enjoys: sitting close, back talking, hearing you undivided attention, birthday presents, knowing that you’re scratches, massages, g i v e s p e c i fi c being watched, surprise gifts, earn- available to help physical activity detailed and rele- special time, tradi- ing a prize, having a when they need it; such as wrestling or vant praise, learning tions, special winks, favorite meal made being thought of as racing, cuddling things together, rituals or places to for them, a contributer; blankets or lovies, giving and receiving talk that are unique collecting things, having special and tickling notes, journaling to them surprising others unique skills

tips for tips for tips for tips for tips for connection: connection: connection: connection: connection: ask your kid what u s e s p e c i fi c a n d have a staring con- fi n d s p e c i a l t r e a - support them in type of touch they genuine praise and test, cook together, sures together in their generous love most, come up show that you notice go on a “ walk and nature, remember thoughts, clean up with a secret hand- the details, talk”, play a favorite their favorite things, their room while shake, make a ritual listen carefully when game, do a puzzle buy their favorite they’re gone, help out of hair brushing they talk, leave together, involve snacks in your them with school or applying lotion, encouraging notes, them in your every normal grocery run, work or practicing a invite them to praise them in f ront day tasks, give a gift download a song new skill; when they cuddle with you, of others when they of experience, make you know they love, make mistakes like tousle their hair or can hear you, take space for special invite them to help forgetting lunch, tell squeeze their shoul- videos of them to time in your regular you surprise some- them you are happy der when you walk share with f riends routine one else help rather than by and family complain or lecture