Good Questions "So you say you've failed"

Horizons Questions from the Congregation

 “So You Say You’ve Failed”

Week 1, Feb. 17, 2013

That I will ask myself:

How can I see failure as a grace from God?

Do I act like the Pharisee?—comparing myself and my faith to the actions/failures of others?

How can I serve God and help others find Him?

What more can I do for others?

What are my biggest fears?

To question my own perceptions of failure in myself and others.

Am I really a failure?

What am I most afraid of?

Do I let others define my success or failure?

Do I act ways to cover up the embarrassment of failure to others?

What pain am I holding on to from my failures?

That I would ask others:

When we fail, what steps do we take to give our failures to God and allow Him to show us new direction?

What keeps you away from God?

What can you do for others?

What happens if you fail?

What ways do people focus on God during their struggles?

How have you worked through the pain of your failures?

If failure can help us grow, why do we try so hard to protect our children from experiencing failure in their lives? How will this affect society? How has it?

What is failure? (you must define success first)

Is failure an outcome or simply part of a continuous process?

Have you ever failed and how did you overcome it?

That I would ask the pastor:

When does failure become something God can work with? What do we have to do? Pray? Repent? Simply acknowledge the failure?

How do we help our children not be afraid of failure?

Do we FAIL because God wants us to be stronger?

What can I do to not owned by my failures?

Is failure relative? Since you can define successes, you define the result of every action.

Does the tax collector now know all his sins are forgiven or does he need to be born again?

How do prevent my feelings of failure leading me into drepression?

That I would ask my HOME or Disciple Group:

How do we approach friends/family/co-workers who we see struggling with failure about the love of Jesus and his forgiveness?

What lesson have you learned or what blessing have you been given because of your failures?

Horizons Nursery & Toddlers! - Jill Knox

Looking forward to 2013! The past year in the nursery/toddler rooms have been full of love and fun! I am lucky to be able to spend time with the littlest of Horizon's kids...your kids. I can't tell you how fun it is to get to watch them for an hour each week and see them grow and learn in God. We don't always make it over for the Bible lesson with the "big" kids but even when we don't, have no doubt, there is plenty of God's love going on in these rooms.  Just this past Sunday, we were a small group so were able to go with the big preschoolers to talk about the Bible. As always, we close our discussion with a prayer. I sometimes forget that even the smallest of God's children have something to say...one of the youngest kids (with help from big sister) said our closing prayer! How sweet is that, I had never heard him talk before which made it all the more surprising. I love God's gentle reminders...don't count out the little ones!

I have been working in the infant/toddler area going on two years and guess what...I'm the NEW one. The group of volunteers that are there each week are so dedicated and I can see the fun they have in taking care of your little ones for that hour. In addition to the grown up volunteers, my boys love to help out. I was initially hesitant to let them stay thinking they had something else in mind but I've since learned, they genuinely want to stay and help out. They love playing with the kids and my 8 year old said to me recently "mom, did you know that babies can teach big kids and grown-ups things"? He and I had a long discussion about this and how cool it is that God is at work all the time teaching us right alongside these kids. 

We had a busy December...trying to learn the songs for "big church", making Christmas trees from sugar cones, hearing the story about Jesus' birth and playing of course. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store. I pray that we continue to see growth in the church because it is a blessing to see these little faces each week. They are so excited to come in and we LOVE to have them! See you soon!

-Jill Knox