Family Overview
THE STORY OF JACOB AND RACHEL
Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only
a few days to him because of the love he had for her.
(Genesis 29:20)
The story of Jacob meeting Rachel by the well and then working for seven years so that he could marry her pictures a spiritual process that each of us must go through if we want to follow the Lord.
READ: "Jacob and the Shepherdess of Haran", a sermon by the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss, Sr.
Every one of us has felt the love of wonderful ideals. Sometimes they move us to tears. Sometimes they inspire us with huge determination. What they need to do is cause us to seek after the truth which will allow us to realize our dreams!
READ: "Jacob Finds Rachel" preschool talk by the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss, Sr.
This story tells about a special kind of love that happens in marriage between a husband and a wife. We can have this beautiful love if we are willing to work hard for it.
READ: "Finding Yourself and Your Heavenly Ideals" by the Rev. David Simons
You are Jacob! You have a journey in life - a journey to find yourself. You have to discover what you want to do with your life that is worthwhile, what use you want to perform for others.
PROJECT: Jacob Meets Rachel by the Well (ages 5-9)
Make a collage of Jacob meeting Rachel by a well. By using a paper fastener for the stone covering the well, Jacob will be able to "roll" it away so that he can help Rachel water the sheep.
COLORING PAGE: Jacob Falls in Love by Lisa Buss
PROJECT: Jacob Waters the Flocks for Rachel (ages 7-9)
Make a well with a stone cover that can be moved out of the way to water Rachel's sheep.
COLORING PAGES by Marguerite L. Acton
Rachel and Her Flock
Jacob at the Well
Jacob and Rachel Embrace
ACTIVITY: Working for Rachel in Our Lives (ages 12-up)
Write your ideals - your goals - inside the outline of a woman's head to picture the "Rachel" that you would like to work for.
SPIRITUAL TASK: Work for the Ideal by the Rev. David Roth (adults)
GOOD AND TRUTH IN CREATION
Since the Lord God the Creator is love itself and wisdom itself,
and the universe was created by Him...it must be that in each
and every created thing there is some goodness and truth from Him.
(Conjugial Love 85)
When we consider the heat and light from the sun, it is not difficult to see how these picture good and truth or love and wisdom. Love and heat are both warm and nurturing. Truth and light both make is possible for us to see - just in different ways. The analogy of the heart and lungs is another one that our minds can grasp.
READ: "Healing Our Broken Hearts" a sermon by the Rev. Jeremy Simons
Jacob's journey to Haran is part of an inner love story that goes on in our minds throughout our life. It is a search for the truth and the love inside of us that are just right for each other, that can be united together, like a spiritual marriage.
ACTIVITY: Matching Symbols of Good and Truth (ages 12-up)
Match symbols from the Word that mean either good or truth. As you try to find pairs that seem to go together, it may help to think of stories in the Word.
ACTIVITY: Concentration Game with Symbols of Good and Truth (ages 9-12)
Learn to separate 8 color pictures into those symbolizing good and those symbolizing truth. You can also play a game of concentration with them, trying to turn up a card with "good" on it along with a card picturing a symbol of good or a card with "truth" written on it and a card picturing a symbol of truth.
ACTIVITY: Springtime - A Perfect Balance of Heat and Light (ages 12-up)
The Heavenly Doctrine tells us that it is always springtime in heaven. Think about what springtime is like and give some reasons why you think it is always springtime there.
ACTIVITY: Heart and Lungs (ages 14-up)
The heart and lungs picture the ideal marriage of good and truth within each person and the interdependence of husband and wife in an ideal marriage.
THE HEAVENLY MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH
The marriage of good and truth from the Lord
is what is called the heavenly marriage.
(New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 260)
The Lord wants to help all of us receive good and truth into our lives and unite them together so that we love to do what is good and true. Uniting these is a key part of walking with the Lord in our lives.
READ: "The Heavenly Marriage" by the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
The whole of the Word is a love story. It tells of the union between true ideas and good feelings, between strong principles and tender concern for others. It breathes the promise of the love of a man for his wife and hers for him. There is also a simple love story in the Word - the romance and enduring love between Jacob and Rachel.
READ: "The Lord's Love: Jacob and Rachel", a family talk by the Rev. John Odhner
The Lord's love for his church and for all its people is like the love of a husband for his wife or like the love of Jacob for Rachel. Because the Lord has such great love for His people, He wants to give us the most precious gift of true marriage love that brings a husband and wife together. He gives that love called true conjugial love to people who go to His Word and take the truth from it and live by that truth so they can do good things.
PROJECT: Hearts Picturing Marriage (ages 3-7)
Using the heart template, cut one heart out of red construction paper and another out of white paper. Write (or ask someone to write) "Daddy" or your father's name on the white heart and "Mommy" or your mother's name on the red heart. (If the parents are divorced, the child could choose other relatives such as Grandma and Grandpa or just write "husband" and "wife" to picture the ideal.)
ACTIVITY: Men and Women Picturing Good and Truth (ages 12-up)
Think about qualities you admire in men and women that you know. Under the picture of a man, write ways that you think a man pictures truth. Under the picture of a woman, write ways that you think a woman pictures good. As an extension of this activity, you might want to make a collage of faces of men if you are male or women if you are female (using clip art or pictures cut from magazines) and then write the way that you would like to be a picture of good or truth.
JOURNAL: Can You Separate Love and Wisdom? (teens and up)
The Heavenly Doctrine tells us that when love is added to wisdom, then love become more loving. Can you think of examples of situations in which love apart from wisdom is not really loving? Similarly, are there times when wisdom apart from love is not really wise?
SING: O Lord of Life, the Truth, the Way
SPIRITUAL TASK: Following Rachel by the Rev. Prescott Rogers ( adults)
UNITING LOVE AND WISDOM IN THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP
Truly conjugial love is nothing but a union of love and wisdom.
Two married partners who have this love between them
and in them at the same time are a reflection and image of it.
(Conjugial Love 65)
The Lord has created man and woman to complement each other perfectly. To attain the goal of a marriage of genuine conjugial love takes work on the part of the partners, separately and together.
READ: "A Love Worth Waiting For" sermon by the Rev. Kenneth Alden
In the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church, we find descriptions of a love that is so beautiful it has inspired single people to hope for marriage, widows and widowers to hope for the resumption of their marriages after death, and couples looking forward to marriage or in the first days of marriage to pray to attain this ideal.
READ: "The Pearl of Great Price" family talk by the Rev. Grant Schnarr
The Lord tells us that heaven is like a beautiful person we fall in love with. This love is like a pearl. Like a pearl though, there is a lot of agitation while this love is being formed.
SING: O Precious Sign
PROJECT: Two Become One (for ages 5-10)
Interlocking hearts picture the way a husband and wife can grow to become one in mind and heart.
PROJECT: Looking to the Lord (for ages 7-up)
This project uses a triangle to picture the way that a husband and wife come closer to each other as they look to the Lord and receive His gifts - each in their own unique way.
SING: O Perfect Love
PROJECT: A Unique Friendship Bracelet (for ages 10-up)
Make braided friendship bracelets using gold embroidery thread to represent the Lord, red embroidery thread for the wife, and white embroidery thread for the husband.
PREPARING FOR MARRIAGE
Genuine conjugial love cannot exist with anyone unless
good united to truth and truth to good from the Lord are present in him.
(see Arcana Coelestia 2729)
By working on uniting good and truth within our lives, we can prepare for marriage or continue to work on making spiritual progress so that we can improve what we bring to our marriage.
READ: "Steps and Stages in Preparing for Marriage" by the Rev. Prescott Rogers
This article describes five steps you can take to prepare yourself for marriage: read, pray, love, observe, and shun evils. It also explains four stages that we go through in preparing for and entering into marriage: seeds, growth, blossoms, and fruit.
READ: "Finding Your Marriage Partner" a family talk by the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
The greatest present the Lord gives you is one special person that you will love above everyone else. Somewhere there is a person who the Lord made for you to live in happiness with for all eternity.
ACTIVITY: Preparing for Marriage by Receiving Good and Truth (teens and adults)
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