Chapter 20: Serving in God's Strength

1.  How do you encourage your children to reach out in service to others?

2.  What things do you do as a family to live in the presence of God on a daily basis?

3.  Reflect on an experience where you were limited in trying to do God's will your way.  How did things change when you gave God control?

4.  When has your motherhood been an act of trust?

Action point-
Read Luke 15:1-7 [Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."  So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.]  In this passage, what was the attitude of the Pharisee and the scribe about "sinners"?  What does Jesus' story indicate about how God feels about "sinners" or "lost sheep"?  Make a list of people that your family can pray for and seek to reach out to.  Choose one and pray together regularly for this person.