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简体中文 Growing Wiser
Growing by fasting!
Quick jumps:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 6:16-18 | The reason for fasting | The way to fast | The result of fasting |
Warm-up | Knee tag | Move to music | Wheelbarrow and inchworm |
Move | Basic plank | Up-down planks | Mirror planks |
Challenge | Story wall | Hot seat | Plank and lunge challenge |
Explore | Read the verses and answer questions | Reread verses and make faces | Reread verses and make an announcement |
Play | Hold the laughter | Bocce adapted | Family competition |
Watch the family.fit five steps
Getting started
Help your family to be active this week with three fun sessions:
- Involve everyone – anyone can lead!
- Adapt for your family
- Encourage each other
- Challenge yourselves
- Don’t exercise if it causes pain
Share family.fit with others:
- Post a photo or video on social media and tag with #familyfit or @familyfitnessfaithfun
- Do family.fit with another family
Day 1: Warm-up
Knee tag
Compete in pairs. Try to touch your opponent’s knees as many times as you can in 60 seconds while you protect your own with your hands and body position. Change partners and try again.
Now go further and try to touch everyone else’s knees while protecting your own.
Rest and talk together.
What is the longest time you have gone without eating?
Go deeper: When in your life have you been most devoted to God?
Day 1: Move
Basic plank
Put hands and feet on the ground and keep your whole body straight like a plank. Support your weight on your elbows.
Hold for 20 seconds and rest. Repeat one more time.
Go easier: Keep the same technique from your knees (instead of your toes).
Go harder: Hold plank for 30 seconds.
Day 1: Challenge
Story wall
Perform a wall sit together for one minute. Lean back against a wall with feet shoulder-width apart. Slide down until your knees are bent at right-angles. Keep head and upper body against the wall.
While sitting on the wall, share a fun story or something good that has happened. Don’t show your suffering. Smile and have fun together.
Rest for 30 seconds and repeat.
Go easier: Reduce wall sit to 30 seconds.
Day 1: Explore
The reason for fasting
Read Matthew 6:16-18 from the Bible.
Jesus assumes His followers will fast from time to time as part of their prayer and devotion to God. While fasting is a good practice, we need to have the right motives.
Take turns to ask the question “Why do you… (sleep, shop, play sport, and so on)?”
Why did Jesus give these instructions on how to fast?
Traditionally, fasting is going without food, but it isn’t enough to just deprive ourselves of food or sleep. We must also devote ourselves to God and worship Him.
Chat to God: Going without something is a way to check our priorities. Pray that God will reveal what you can go without for a time. Use this to deepen your relationship with Him.
Day 1: Play
Hold the laughter
Sit in a circle. One at a time try to make the others laugh without touching them. For example, make faces, tell jokes, and so on. The goal is not to laugh. After two minutes, or if someone laughs, change roles until everyone has had at least one turn at trying to make people laugh.
Adaption: If someone in the family is vision-impaired, tell jokes or stories instead of making faces.
Health tip
Eat well.
Day 2: Warm-up
Move to music
Put on some favorite music. Repeat these moves until the music ends:
- 10 running on spot
- 5 squats
- 10 running on spot
- 5 squats with hand clap above head
Rest and talk together.
In what ways do we change our faces for others to see?
Go deeper: Why is the way we look important?
Day 2: Move
Up-down planks
Start in the plank position on your elbows and toes with your body in a straight line. Shift your weight and press up so you are supported on your hands – left hand then right hand. Then go back down to elbows.
Do 10 repetitions and rest. Do two rounds.
Go easier: Keep the same technique from your knees (instead of your toes).
Go harder: Increase the number of rounds.
Day 2: Challenge
Hot seat
One person holds a squat while everyone else does 30 jumping jacks. Rest for 20 seconds and then tap out to the next person.
Do four rounds.
Go easier: Reduce the number of jumping jacks or the number of rounds.
Day 2: Explore
The way to fast
Read Matthew 6:16-18.
These verses remind us that if we choose to fast and go without something, we are not to wear gloomy faces and make it obvious. We can hide our motives from others, but not from God.
Take turns to demonstrate a feeling or emotion by using just your face.
How might we use our faces or appearance to hide what is in our hearts?
Chat to God: Discuss and agree on something your family can go without, and for how long. Pray that God would use this time to strengthen your connection with our Father who sees in secret.
Day 2: Play
Bocce adapted
Find a ball to use as a ‘jack’ and three pieces of paper per person. Crumple the paper into balls and mark each set of three with a different color. Make a start line on the floor and roll the ‘jack’ away from you. The aim of the game is to get your balls closest to the ‘jack’. The balls must be thrown in the air, not rolled. With feet behind the line, take turns to throw one ball at a time. The winner is the one with the most balls closest to the ‘jack’.
Bocce or bocce ball is a sport of the Special Olympic Games which is for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.
Reflect: What was difficult about this game? Did you need a lot of strength to win? In life, victory often comes when we learn how to control our strength.
Health tip
Eat well.
Keep a supply of healthy snacks for your family such as fruit, nuts, and seeds.
Day 3: Warm-up
Wheelbarrow and inchworm
Wheelbarrow: Work with a partner. Walk 10 meters then swap places.
Inch worm: Bend at the waist and place your hands on the floor. Walk your hands out until you’re in a plank position with a flat back. Then walk your feet as close to your hands as you can.
Repeat for 10 meters. Do three rounds.
Rest and talk together.
Talk about times you have heard people make public announcements.
Go deeper: What makes an announcement believable?
Day 3: Move
Mirror planks
Work in pairs. Get into a plank position facing a partner. One person in each pair will be the mirror and will need to copy everything the other one does. Hold each plank for at least 20 seconds. Rest and repeat. Have fun.
Go easier: Keep the same technique from your knees (instead of your toes).
Go harder: Increase the time you hold each plank.
Day 3: Challenge
Plank and lunge challenge
Work with a partner. While one person is in a plank position the other does lunges. Change places after 10 lunges on each leg. Do four rounds.
Go easier: Do five lunges on each leg.
Go harder: Add weights to your lunges.
Day 3: Explore
The result of fasting
Read Matthew 6:16-18.
Take turns to stand on a chair and announce one thing you will be doing today. Most times we don’t need to announce what we’re going to do – we just do it!
Jesus makes it clear that those who fast should do it quietly and secretly.
What does Jesus promise to those who fast for the right reasons?
Chat to God: Think of a need in your community that requires consistent prayer. Make it a focus of your prayer this week in spaces you create by ‘going without’.
Day 3: Play
Family competition
Which family member can do the following?
- Longest jump from standing position
- Longest time standing on one leg
- Longest time without blinking
- Say your full name in one breath
- Dribble a ball for the longest
- Longest plank or squat
Make up your own. Have fun!
Tip for parents
Give each of your children and teens simple jobs with responsibilities. Make sure it is something they are able to do and then praise them when they do it!
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