Share a high and a low from your week.
This can be a short story or comment, or a longer story with more conversation. If you are just starting out, don't press the conversation if it feels awkward. Let the conversation come to you as you move through the questions!

Why is it sometimes easier to blame God for what you don't have than trust God with what you do have?
What do you think Jesus was trying to teach the crowd through The Story of The Talents?
                                              Find a phrase you can say to remind yourself of the way God sees you. Write that                                                phrase down:
                                                               My God loves me, so I can love me.
                                                               I'm a loved son/daughter of God.
                                                               God defines me. People don't.
                                                               I'm an accepted child of God.
                                                               God says I have what it takes.

Thank you for the gifts you have given me. Thank you for the gifts you have given others. Be with us this week as we celebrate the many blessings in our lives and the lives of others. Help us to use these gifts to glorify you. Amen.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Share a High or Low from this week.
Name one person in your life that you wish would say, "You're Awesome."

Galatians 4:4-6
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

According to the Galatians 4:4-6, what do you think God thinks about you?
How does this affect the way you see yourself?
What would you do differently today if you only cared about God's opinion?

Dear God, thank you for loving us as your sons and daughters. Thank you for sending your Spirit into our lives and helping us find our worth in your eyes. Remind us that we are your children and we are loved by you. Amen.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Share a High or Low from this week.
Why is comparison a trap?
What are some of the “ers” you see people wanting
(to be richer, skinnier, smarter, handsomer, funnier, cooler, etc.)?

What motivates and drives us to keep getting and achieving more?
Why do we rarely feel satisfied when we’ve achieved what we want to achieve?
Why do we have a tendency to enjoy seeing other people fail?
Describe how you would feel if you could let go of comparing yourself to others. (You may need to prompt your students with some examples: less worried, less exhausted, etc. Ask them why they would feel those things).

Lord, we know we can easily forget the gifts we have in our lives and we compare what we do not have with what others have. Help us to see the gifts around us. Remind us that we are your child. Amen.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Faith 5 is copyright by Faith Inkubators

On a scale of one to ten, how do you measure up? Are you tall enough? Pretty enough? Smart enough? Funny enough? And on that scale, which number represents enough? Do you have to score a ten or will a solid seven do? How about a five? It’s better than average, right? Most of us measure how we’re doing by how everyone else is doing. Not a day goes by that we’re not tempted to glance to our left and to our right to see how we measure up to the people around us. This is especially true at school. We see everyone else’s grades, clothes, athletic ability, talent, and popularity. And it’s easy to feel like we don’t measure up.  So we adjust course, try harder, spend more, and then compare again. It's exhausting. In this 3-part series,we explore the difficult—but not impossible—challenge of escaping The Comparison Trap.

Parenting is hard. We probably knew going in that it wouldn’t always be a walk in the park. But, as a parent, have you noticed there are some curve balls that you just don’t know how to handle?

Chances are, you knew your kids were going to be different from one another. But it’s also likely you had no idea just how different they could be until you started raising them—until they hit a certain age and suddenly what you assumed would be true of one of your kids because it was true of an older one—just isn’t. Sometimes it feels like you have to learn how to parent all over again with each child. And sometimes not just with each child, but through each life-stage your children experience.

We may not do it on purpose, but there is a tendency to compare that comes so naturally and so easily. We bring attention to the ways our students are different from their siblings, their friends, our friends, and even earlier versions of themselves. It’s so tempting to say, “But why can’t you just be like______?” The problem is, comparison rarely works. It doesn’t make students want to try harder and it can often lead to resentment toward the parents and the sibling with whom they’re compared. Even within the family, there is no win in comparison.

Sameness isn’t even really a goal worth shooting for. Maybe there are traits in one of your children that you’d like the others to take on. That’s great, but you probably don’t want them to be exact replicas. A better goal is to be intentional in learning, studying, and celebrating the personality and wiring of each individual child.

No one wants to feel like they don’t measure up. Especially not in the place where they want to feel the safest and most secure. Work on making your family and your home the place where who your child is celebrated and not compared.

This week, point out something in your teenager that you appreciate. Find something that you have seen grow and develop in them that is a strength and then tell them how proud of them you are.

Then find something that, at first glance, feels like something you would change—that you would compare to someone else and wish away. And then find a way to leverage it. To see the good in it. For example,

• “I know I’m often on your case about talking too much in class, but I want you to know that I also love how social you are. You are great at managing a lot of friendships.”
• “I know that I get upset when you fight with your younger brother, but I also recognize that you’re just trying to get him to act in a way that is more socially acceptable. Thanks for wanting to help him.”
• “Yesterday we had an argument about playing guitar instead of cleaning your room. While I still want you to have a clean room, I’m also really proud of you for working so hard to learn to play the guitar well.”

Finding a way to celebrate something you had vocally been frustrated over in the past will mean more than you can imagine to your student. Don’t underestimate the value of your affirmation.

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