Welcome to the SEEDS FAMILY BOX
Hello from all of us at Seeds Family Worship! We are thankful for every family that participates in theSeeds Family Box. We hope your faith is strengthened as you engage with these resources and activities every month.

This month we are going to encourage you to grow in surrendering yourself and your family to the Lord. We want to help you lead your family to live for “the greater things”. What are the greater things? They are living a life of purpose, surrendering to God’s will and trusting Him to lead, provide and guide you into His plans for your lives.

We have included a powerful activity for your family called “The Surrender Cross”. It will provide an opportunity to learn how to surrender your family’s burdens to the Lord.

There is nothing greater than to live a life of loving God and others. It begins in your home by being intentional about surrendering everything to Him.

SURRENDER CROSS

We are so thankful to be sharing this resource with you this month created by Rick and Jackie Drew through the RAD JOY ministry. We believe the activity connected with The Surrender Cross will have a profound impact on your family. All of us were created to be impacted through symbols and visual demonstrations of deeper truths. We see this over and over in the Bible, including the teachings of Jesus to His disciples.

The Surrender Cross is a powerful illustration of how we can bring our burdens to the Lord. The cross is handmade from reclaimed wood and because each piece of wood is different, each cross is one of a kind. The cross comes with 3 pre-drilled holes and copper nails for piercing your burdens to it. Each cross bears a signature mark of 3 lines representing the Holy Trinity.

Here are the instructions from The Drew Family on how to best use the Surrender Cross in your home:

USING THE SURRENDER CROSS:

1. As a gesture of prayer, asking God for release, you write your burdens down.

2. Physically nail your burden to the Surrender Cross.

3. When you start to worry, remember that God is in control and that He doesn’t want us to carry this weight. As you physically see the cross, let it be a joyful reminder that He has died for you and that He wants you to live in freedom. (Matthew 11:28-30)

4. As your prayers are answered, you can take the sheets of paper off the cross and praise God for His good works! We put ours in our “Faithfulness Jar,” allowing us to go back and celebrate all the ways that God has been faithful! (Psalm 78:4)

FREEDOM AND JOY

In 1 Peter 5:7, we are commanded: “Cast all of our anxiety on Him because He cares about us”. When it comes to the stresses in life, we often say we are giving it to God, but in reality, we end up holding on to our worries without realizing the weight we re carrying.

So, how do we take on that lighter yoke and find joy in Christ?

• WRITE IT DOWN – When you write down your concerns, you are bringing them to the light. This gives you the opportunity to name these burdens, bringing them from the abstract to the concrete, and thwarting the devil’s attempt to get a foothold.

• GIVE IT UP – As you pierce that nail through the paper and nail it the cross, it is powerful to remember that Christ Himself was pierced for our transgressions and that He died, so that we could be free. (Galatians 5:1)

• BE REMINDED – Every time you are temped to “take it back from God,” you can walk by your cross, and remember that God is holding your burdens for you! Experience joy each time you pass by this visual reminder of God’s love.

31 PRAYER CARDS FOR LITTLE GOD’S WARRIORS IN TRAINING

The 31 Cards For God’s Little Warriors In Training are simple prayer cards created to help parents pray with their younger children. This resource was also created by the RAD JOY Ministry and is geared toward toddlers and early elementary children. Each of these prayer cards has a different word with a corresponding prayer on the front and a Bible verse on the back. Our hope is that this will help you teach your children the importance of praying specifically and praying often.

There are 31 cards, so you can pray one card each day of the month or if there is an area on which you’d like to concentrate, you can remove the card from the ring and just focus on that one. Hang them from your Surrender Cross or keep them by your child’s bed to use as a part of a bedtime prayer routine. We have found that bedtime prayers provide incredible blessings for both the younger children and their parents.

“Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

2 Thessalonians 5:16-18

SEEDS OF PURPOSE DVD(HOME VERSION) & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CARD

We believe this DVD is the perfect companion for meaningful summer family time. There is an incredible commercial campaign in the state of Idaho where we live called “18 Summers”. It encourages families to make the most of their time together because they only have 18 summers with their children. The commercials show families enjoying the Idaho outdoors together swimming, camping and spending time around the campfire. I admit that the ads bring me to tears nearly every time.

It even more important for us as Christian parents to think about how limited our time is to impact our children for eternity. This Seeds Of Purpose DVD and Digital Download card provide the opportunity for you to sing, learn, and talk about God’s greater purpose for your children and for your family this summer. We were made to love God. We are called to love each other and “seek first” the greater things of God’s Kingdom.