The Family Table

Dear LEFC Parents,

Welcome to 2025! Here are some nourishing items to set the table for disciple-making in your family this week.

You’re Invited to Family Night!

Join us for Family Night on the evening of February 21st from 6:00-8:00! We’ll have a time of fellowship together as families of LEFC playing games and socializing. Dinner will also be provided. Invite your friends to come enjoy a fun evening!

Register for Summer Camp!

Has your child ever considered attending a summer camp at Miracle Mountain Ranch? Now is a great time to think about registering for one of their various camps, as those who sign up by February 1st will receive a discount. Camps are available starting at age 6. Visit their website to learn more about camp offerings, dates, and costs. See Marilynn Kristofits with questions or for more information!

Easter Egg Hunt 2025

Mark your calendars now for the LEFC Easter Egg Hunt on April 19th, the day before Easter. Be thinking about how you might want to volunteer to help out in various ways. We will also be looking for donations of candy and prizes when the time comes.

Volunteer Opportunities for Family Bible Week

Family Bible week will be held July 7-13, 2025. We have several volunteer opportunities that we would love for some of our LEFC parents to fill. We need teachers and helpers for nursery, Pre-K-K, 1st-3rd, and 4th-6th, members of the decorating team, kitchen help, games helpers, members of the worship rally team, photography/videography, security, and a finale team. See Jordyn Skacel if you have interest in filling any of these vital roles, or to get more information about each.

“The People Grumbled” Kids Bible Class Devotional

You have free access to a family devotional based on the curriculum our kids are studying each week in KBC! It’s called “The Gospel Project at Home.” Today’s Bible Study is “The People Grumbled” (Volume 1: Unit 6: Session 1), and the devotional can be found at this link.

Visit the Family Ministries page on our website for information about how to access The Gospel Project at Home for the first time.

And for dessert…

This week’s recommendation for family discipleship is an insightful article about dealing with parental regret.

Every parent can probably relate to what Christian counselor and author Lauren Whitman writes:

“As we age, it’s natural to look back at years past. Reflection can be helpful—an important way we grow in wisdom. But for parents, this process can be painful when there are hardships or negative outcomes in our children’s lives. We may live with feelings of failure as we replay our missteps and ways we floundered as parents. Regrets swirl around and around in our minds on an anxious loop, and we don’t know what to do with them.”

Whitman suggests three major reasons why parents have regret and offers what she calls an “off ramp” for each one with a simple suggestion of how to talk to our children about each kind of regret, appropriately acknowledging where we have fallen short.

She says, “Rather than letting regrets anxiously swirl in our minds, we can take the off-ramp of reckoning honestly with what happened. Did you notice the pattern? It’s relational. Let your regrets move you toward the Lord, toward other Christians, and toward your kids.”

Read the whole thing: Parental Regret: How to Move Forward When You’ve Let Your Kids Down. It only takes a few minutes to read but might save you many hours of unhelpful worry, guilt, and shame.

For parents who are wrestling deeply with regrets, the author has written a booklet that helps us see Jesus’ compassion and receive the comfort he offers us in their distress: When Parents Feel Like Failures.

We hope our parents eat it right up!

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor