The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory Women's Ministries -MemoriesofLoveShared

Welcome to The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory Women's Ministries Website

Women's Ministries Programs

mother and child, child, woman and boy

January – Education

Theme:

“Memories”

“Memories of Love Shared”

Nancy Powers

Central Territory

Theme:

“Memories”

January –

Education Program

2006

Centerpieces:

Use framed photos of families and friends participating in fun activities. Around the frames place objects that families do together such as: a baseball mitt and ball, a deck of UNO® cards, a coloring book with crayons, a child’s book, a popped bag of popcorn opened and spilling out over a video, an opened children’s Bible.

Refreshments

Making cookies provides many sweet family memories. Let the women frost plain sugar cookies with colored frosting, sugar, silver balls and candy confetti. Encourage them to talk about their memories of cookie baking with their mothers or children.

Program Ideas

Games

Set up small folding tables and chairs throughout the meeting room. Display board or card games that the women might have played as children. Some suggestions are: checkers, dominoes, Yatzee®, chess, Chinese checkers, UNO®, Scrabble®. Appoint

someone to each game who knows the rules and will encourage the women to participate in them.

I Remember When

Ask the women to bring a photo or object that reminds them of a time in their lives when they felt especially loved. Allow a few minutes for sharing their memories. Even those who forgot to prepare can share a memory with the group.

Traditions

A tradition, according to the dictionary, is a long established custom or belief sometimes handed down from generation to generation. Ask the women to share traditions in their family which they now practice in their own homes. Some may have established new traditions since setting up their own homes.

The following questions may help to spur on the discussion:

When do you put up your Christmas tree?
What are some things you do every year during the Christmas season that have become traditions?

What things do you do on other holidays that are special to your family?
What traditions do you feel are important enough that you want your children to carry them into the future and why?

It‘s possible that some of the women do not have pleasant memories of the past, but could like to create them for their families. Talk about how to create family traditions. Some suggestions might be: read a devotional and pray before bed time as a family; read a bedtime story together; when possible, plan Sunday dinner as a family; set aside some days that are designated as family days and go to the beach, have a picnic in the park or a movie night at home with popcorn.

Devotions

“Memories of Love”

As you listen to the memories of love shared during the activity time, did people brag about the great feats their family and friends accomplished. Did it matter how much money or stocks and bonds they had? Was it important that the person held a prestigious job, had a big house or a nice car? Or did they talk about shared love and how that made

them feel?

In The Salvation Army we have an opportunity to see many types of people who volunteer their time. Some volunteers are simply fulfilling an obligation, such as a court mandate or a requirement of a school for a certain number of hours. For individuals whose only motivation is obligation, there is little interaction with those they serve. Volunteers who really want to serve may give the same amount of time but report wonderful interaction. They feel fulfilled by volunteering. It is interesting to see the

impact their good deeds have on the recipients. What makes the difference? They both give the same amount of time. The motivation of the person makes all the difference. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that speaking in tongues, prophecy, wisdom, even faith, are nothing without love. Even if we do wonderful things, but don’t do them in love, nothing is gained.

How do you want people to remember you? Think about the memory you shared earlier; will other people have a memory of love because of you? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self–seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always

perseveres” (1 Cor. 13:4–7). Does this describe you?

Our theme has been the memories of love shared. We’ve had times in our lives when love was shared with us. Now let’s think about the future. How do we create more times of shared love? Are we women who know how to love? Are there areas of our life that we need God to help us change? The future chapters of our lives are still blank. Let’s focus on how they will be written. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).