HEALTHY FAMILIES FOR ETERNITY

HEALTHY FAMILIES FOR ETERNITY REACH THE WORLD
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• Gather the other materials needed for the tables —
if possible place the materials for each activity in a
different bag or container to facilitate a quick and
efficient set up.
• You will need a flip chart or white board and
marker pens.
Welcome and opening
• Thank everyone for coming to the seminar.
• Pray that the seminar will be a blessing.
• Describe what you will be doing and why.
Introduction
Today we will spend time thinking about our
emotional health. When we have happy and healthy
emotions we are more likely to have happy and caring
relationships, do well at school or in our work, and be
physically and spiritually healthy.
Before we start let’s think about why God gave us so
many emotions.
Ask the group:
Why is it important for human beings to experience
emotions?
Gather their answers on a flip chart and make sure the
list includes the following points:
• Emotions are gifts from God. (Imagine what
life would be like if we didn’t experience any
emotion).
• Emotions are not good or bad. They are the
natural way for our body to respond to events,
and they help us to make sense of our experiences.
• Emotions help us to build and enrich our
relationships.
• Our emotions can bring us closer to God and to
each other.
Sharing happy moments
• Find a partner next to you and spend a few moments
sharing a time when you were really happy during the
past week, or month.
• If you are here as a couple, share these stories with
each other.
• If you are here as a family, listen to the stories of your
children as a priority because we have a limited time.
• If you are on your own, find a friend, or make a new
friend.
• Allow 5 minutes for pairs to share their stories.
• Ask people to notice how they are feeling after
sharing their happy moments (peaceful, happy,
good, warm, etc.).
Paul’s Positive Ideas
Let’s explore Paul’s ideas for experiencing more of these
positive and happy emotions in our life. (Give the younger
children a ‘Feelings’ worksheet to complete).
• Divide the adults and high school students into
small groups of 3-4 people.
• Ask each group to turn to Philippians chapter 4 and
to make a list of Paul’s specific ideas for nurturing
positive emotions and thoughts.
• After 5 minutes gather their ideas and write them
on the flip chart.
• Ask each group to contribute one idea and then ask
for further ideas.
• Add in any extra ideas from the list below if
necessary.
• Invite feedback in response to the list of Paul’s
Positive Ideas.
Paul’s positive ideas in Philippians 4
verse by verse
1 Celebrate the strengths of other people.
2 -3 Help the people around you sort our their
differences and conflicts.
4 Rejoice! Focus on good things to celebrate, even
in hard times.
5 Be gentle and kind to everyone you meet.
6 Turn your worries into prayers, and pray with
thanksgiving.
7 Let the peace of Jesus fill your mind.
8 Think about positive, noble, beautiful, true,
right, pure and excellent things.
9 Put your spiritual learning into practice.
10 Show kind concern for other people.
11-12 Learn how to be content whatever your
circumstances.
13 Depend on God for your strength.
14 Support each other through the hard times,
share your struggles.
Feelings that drain us
As humans it’s not possible to experience positive
emotions all the time. We live in an imperfect world and
it’s important to experience some negative emotions too.
Positive emotions are the ones that fill us up, and negative
emotions are the ones that drain us, push us down, and
deplete our health and happiness.