Westminster’s “Orange Idea” is a monthly, family-friendly, 1-page resource to help you live out your faith at home. But what is “Orange,” you might ask?

As Julie and Matthew explained, it’s not just a colour—it’s a way of thinking: Yellow represents the light of Jesus shared by the church. Red represents the blood and bond of the family. So when you put Yellow and Red together you get…

Orange!

So an “Orange idea” is when the church helps people live out their faith in their families and homes. After all, the home is the primary place where faith is formed.

So this monthly resource will help people of different ages learn about and live out their Christian faith in tangible, practical ways.

Here’s January’s Orange Idea: Make a family resolution!

As the New Year begins, we often think of ways to improve ourselves and make it the best year possible. This month we’d like to challenge you and your family to come up with a plan to meet a new goal as a family.

So together as a family, create a poster with a family resolution on it. You can be motivated and energized to complete your resolution by looking at the poster until your resolution is complete.

(If you want a poster template you can get a hard copy at the church.)

In Ecclesiastes 3:1 it says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” So what if the season for that great, faith-based change was now?

Here are some helpful tips:

1. You could have a goal that is social, such as volunteering together, or helping a neighbour by shoveling their driveway, etc. What makes sense in your weekly schedule?

2. You could have a goal that is more of an activity: Try a new story (i.e. bubble soccer), or cook something together, or go to a family day at Michaels or Home Depot and create something. Maybe you could have a regular games night where everyone just has fun together?

3. It could be something more spiritually motivated such as starting each day with a prayer for each other, or a hug and each person saying one thing they’re grateful for.

4. If you have young children try cutting pictures out of newspaper ads or magazines to help them envision your resolution as well.

5. Remember, the family that rows together grows together!

Start 2017 right and make a family resolution.

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• The idea about “Orange” being a combination of the light of Jesus shared by the church and the blood and bond of the family is by Reggie Joiner in his book Think Orange.
• You can see Westminster’s page about it (and also previous Orange Ideas) here.