SMALL GROUPS May 29th, 2012

 

Listen Up! – Week 4 – Called to Love

 

PARENT EDITION:

 

We’re almost to the end of our spring semester! Hasn’t it just flown by? This will be the last week of our series on what it means to hear from God and understand his calling on our lives. For the final week I wanted to tie together two different concepts we’ve been talking about; God’s calling, and our worship towards Him. We’re talking about God’s calling on our lives to love. Often we can become very self centered in the way that we love. We tend to love ourselves before we truly love God and love others. This week we want to help our Jr. Highs understand the importance of loving others and God before they love themselves, and if they can accomplish that, they will truly learn how to love themselves in a very healthy way. God has called each of us to love, and we want to be able to do that the best that we can.

 

Question 1: Bernard Clairvaux in his book “On the Love of God”, talks about how when we only love ourselves, it takes crisis or calamity in our lives to truly learn to love God. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

 

Question 2: How can God’s calling on our lives to Love be truly reflected in our families? Would it change anything from the way it is now?

 

Question 3: Do you think that you’ve been a great example to your kids on what it means to love others? Including your enemies?

 

Question 4: How can you continue to be a good example to your family on what it means to love God before self?

 

 

HOW CAN WE PRAY?

 

1. That our students will start to love God and others more and more everyday.
2. That as parents, God will grant you the opportunities to show your students how to love God and others.
3. That our leaders will have the wisdom to guide their students towards their calling to love.

 

 

LEADERS:

 

This is the last week in our series on what it means to hear God’s voice, and understand His calling. For our last week we’re going to be discussing the calling that we have on our lives to love. Very often we find that we are very inwardly focused on the way that we love, and very often forget that we’re called to love God and others. This week we’re going to discuss this with our Jr. Highs and challenge them to remember others before the remember themselves. We live in a very selfish society where we focus on loving ourselves. When we are able to love God and others first, then we will develop a good love for ourselves, based on the love that God has for us as our creator.

 

Question 1: Go around the room and give a High and Low from last week.

 

Question 2: In your own words, what does it mean to be called by God to do something?

 

Question 3: What opportunities in your own life do you have everyday to love? Loving others, loving God, loving yourself?

 

Question 4: How can it be healthy to love yourself?

 

Question 5: Since we talked about worship in April, how do you think the idea of love fits into worship?

 

Question 6: How will you make sure that you respond to God’s calling in your life to love?

 

 

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 John 4:7-9

 

Go around the room and encourage each one of your students to do their best to listen for God’s voice this week. Encourage a few of your students to pray for the rest of the group.