Church Family Moment for Sunday, February 23, 2025

By Director of Spiritual Formation Rebecca Guzman

1. Listen to a readaloud of the book Rufus and His Angry Tail by Elias Carr. On the Storypath website, Rev. Katie Barrett Todd writes, “This book does a wonderful job of teaching young readers how to recognize symptoms of anger as well as encouraging us to turn to prayer/God during times of mistreatment, frustration, hurt, and fury.” This goes along well with our Gospel passage today, when Jesus teaches us during the Sermon on the Plain how we are to respond when we get angry.
2. Print out and color this reflective coloring page that has the Golden Rule on it. This verse is from the Gospel passage today. What do you think about the Golden Rule? Do you treat others the way that you would like to be treated? Is that always easy?
3. Think for a moment about the people whom you find hardest to love and to forgive. Keep those people in mind as you sing The Servant Song.
4. Journal, considering the following:
   1. I wonder why Jesus tells us to love our enemies instead of just avoiding them (v. 27). What do you think?
   2. Jesus says to pray for those who hurt us (v. 28). I wonder how praying for someone changes our hearts. What do you think?
   3. I wonder what the world would be like if everyone followed the Golden Rule (v. 31). How would things be different?