Week Four

Part 4: Healing and re-shaping the family history

Read Exodus 1: 8-22

Let’s hear it for Shiphrah and Puah! Their quick thinking saves lives, keeps families intact and frustrates the will of a bloodthirsty xenophobic despot! Picture it: ‘Call The Midwife BC Edition’ with courageous women going from house to house on their donkeys with compassion, ingenuity and bravery.

Who are the vigorous women who have kept our families and communities and churches together over the years?

Read Romans 12: 1-8

A key part of restoring relationships is often having a sense of humour and being able to be generously self-deprecating. In verse 3 we are given a wee reality check. It’s good now and then to take stock and look at ourselves honestly (but also compassionately).

Why is it that being able to have a sense of and perspective and humour about yourself and your abilities helps mend fraught relationships?

Read Ephesians 4: 1-6

Bearing with one another in love can be very hard. In the coming weeks, months and years we face many challenges as families, as communities, as societies indeed as a common humanity — as one body with many parts.

What is our prayer for the week ahead? What is our prayer for the year ahead? What is our prayer for the coming decades? How can we lead the way in showing humility, gentleness and patience?