I have taken bits and pieces from all the age groups during our "activities" time, so it's nice they are all together.

I really appreciate the Bible verses as we review those each night we work on this. They're in the Kindergarten section, but they've been a helpful focal point for all of us to be reminded of these important truths.

Instead of a "humility journal" (High School activity 5), we have taken turns sharing out loud acts of kindness they did or had done to them and how that made them feel as well as

"When was the last time you helped someone without expecting anything in return? How do you handle situations when things don’t go your way?"

One of our best evening conversations spring boarded off of High School activity 6!

"Part of humility is acknowledging your own mistakes and being willing to apologize. Another part of humility is allowing someone else to apologize and being willing to forgive them...You can help guide the student through life situations as they arise, as to next steps. Part of this could be doing role-play to help them practice."

This was HUGE. I had the kids "role play" and "made up" a situation that was very similar to a situation I had observed that had not been resolved after we discussed the first part (acknowledging mistakes and a willingness to apologize).

We ended up going even deeper because I then asked the person apologizing if they understood that "repentance" means turning away from the thing you just said you realized hurt the other person. They acknowledged that, but then I said, "so what is the deeper issue here that you need to turn away from so that you don't do that again?" It became a much deeper conversation about anger, patience, considering the other person, selfishness, and root causes of conflict.

It was amazing.

The role playing was helpful because it allowed things to start out silly, but then I assigned the real thing, and the kids were like "oh, yeah, I should have apologized for that."

We also were able to acknowledge sometimes we don't forgive because the other person hasn't made an effort to show us that they want to change. I told them that a commitment to turning away from the thing that caused pain is a big part of an apology... and we don't just turn away from it, we turn toward something better, more healthy.

Then we discussed things like, when tempers are flaring, what do you turn away from and what do you turn toward? Turn away from yelling, turn toward stepping out of that situation until you have calmed down... go for a walk, do some push ups, get a snack if you're super hungry.
 

Last night, we worked through the Mother Theresa section in the college-age section. Most of my kids are in college, so it wasn't over their heads and it led to a good conversation as well.

Anyway, I wanted to give you an update on how we have used this so far (we've done 3 focused devotions times on this specific curriculum so far, so we really just started).