R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Gimme some R-E-S-P-E-C-T  Priscilla.  "Priscilla?" you ask.  Yes, Priscilla, wife of Aquila, was the "princess" of the month at our Mother/Daughter bible study last week.  All year we will be looking at biblical women, aka God's princesses, and the royal characteristics they lived out. 

October was Priscilla and the characteristic of respect.  I don't know about little princesses living under your roof, but the ones living under mine can use a reminder every now and then about respect.  I was thrilled when our study leader Cindy announced this month's theme.  (I may have even wanted to shout Amen!  But of course that would not have been very respectful of my kids. )

Priscilla showed respect in the story accounted in Acts 18:1-28 when she and her husband Aquila were faced with having to correct their friend Apollos who was incorrectly teaching about Jesus.  Instead of calling Apollos out publicly, they waited, took him aside and then corrected him privately.  Priscilla respected Apollos. 

The girls really latched onto this story.  As first graders, they all are working hard to learn new skills of reading, writing and math at school.  They all make mistakes. As the girls talked it became apparent that most of them had seen or personally felt the hurt of classmates publicly calling out their errors. 

Cindy had planned some great activities around this lesson.  In small groups, the moms and daughters were given a giant letter.  They were asked to talk individually about what respect looked like.  It is a tough word to wrap your mind around.  It can mean a lot of things.  The groups wrote their ideas all over their letter.  We came back together and shared what we had written as the letters were tied together to spell out.... you got it....

R..E..S...P...E..C...T..

 

The girls had wonderful ideas about what respect looks like. 

• Love each other
• Help each other
• Wait my turn
• Use good manners
• Don't laugh at mistakes
• Helping
• being kind
• loving
• helping someone who's sick
• use nice words 
• not hitting
• gentle
• listen to each other

Our verse of the month is:

 

Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters. 
1 Peter 2:17

 

Whether we are 7 or 37 or 67, in a culture of judgement and belittling (especially in our current election culture), it is good for us to think about Priscilla and reflect God's love by showing  each other a little R..E..S..P..E..C..T...