Anger…we all deal with it, and as a teenager, it can be very frustrating, especially when we are trying to honor God with our lives.  In our large group experience students will discover that God has given us all the emotion of anger for a reason.  Believe it or not, the Bible actually describes God as angry at certain times.  The catch is learning how to use our God given emotion in a God honoring way.  The closer we get in a relationship with God the more we will get angry about the things that make Him angry and use our anger not to sin but to passionately stand up for Him.

In their group time tonight students will take a closer look at the life of Cain to discover how not keeping our anger under check can cause some pain and difficult circumstances in our lives that can make our lives even more frustrating.  They will uncover the truth that God wants them to train themselves to be slow to anger. 

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

Anger affects all of us.  Whether you are the angry one or just happen to get caught up in the carnage of conflict, there is no avoiding the emotion of anger.  But there is a way to deal with it without sinning and letting it ruin our lives!  Talk through the following scenarios as a family and see how you’d respond:

• Parent is running behind and makes the student late for a movie with their friends.
• Student goes way over their plan’s cell phone minutes for the month…3 months in a row.
• Parent plans a family overnight trip on the same weekend as a student’s friend’s birthday party that the student has been looking forward to.
• Student hasn’t turned in homework in over 2 weeks in a class and parents get a call from the school.

As a family focus on James 1:19-20.  Memorize it together this week, and ask each member to do their best to live it out in their relationships. 
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Discussion Questions:

• How should we respond to situations that bring out our anger?
• How should we respond when other people are angry?
• What are some ways that your family can prevent anger from disrupting your family unity?  How can you help each other in this area?

I just wanted to take a few moments and let you all know about the awesome week we had last Wednesday night as we kicked off the new school year.  We had 196 at Remix, and 75 were 6^th graders.  That is unbelievable, and we thank God that so many students are committed and excited about this school year.  I want to remind you just how important it is for your student to stay connected on Wednesday nights.  The relationships that they have there are critical to them at this age, and I encourage you to make it a priority to get them here on a consistent basis as the year continues.    

In our large group experience we continued our look into the series “Frustrated’.  We talked about how frustrating it can be to find acceptance.  Let’s face it; all of us are looking for acceptance from others.  The challenge is that most of the time, acceptance is based on what we do to earn it.  The moment we stop earning it, is the moment it is no longer given to us.  We challenged students to realize that Christ acceptance of us is based on what He has done for us.  He loves us, even when we don’t deserve it.  His acceptance in unconditional, and we don’t have to try and earn it.  Because of that, we challenged them to find true acceptance in Christ instead of chasing after it in the things we think will give it to us, but in the end never do. 

 In their group time, students were given the opportunity to draw a picture of what was the most important thing to them.  They were then challenged to think about how we usually seek acceptance from what we perceive to be the most important thing in our life.  They looked at Romans 5:6-9 to discover the fact that God’s love and acceptance of us is based on what He did, not on what we do. To wrap up their group time, they were challenged to evaluate exactly who or what they look to, to find acceptance.  If it was not God, they were challenged to surrender that and begin to seek God for their acceptance.   

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• What would you say are the top 3 most important things to you?
• What are some things that should be important to us all?
• What does it mean to be accepted?  Why do we want that so bad?
• How does knowing that God’s acceptance of us is not based on what we do, but on what He has done for us make you feel?  Why? 
• What are some things that you have looked to to find acceptance in life, but that didn’t give it to you?  (This would be a great question, if you lead by giving them some examples from your own life as their parent.)

Tonight we officially kicked off the new school year!  Students were welcomed as the celebrities that they are with a red carpet entrance and an entourage of paparazzi!  We kicked off a new series called frustrated that takes a closer look at how frustrated it can be to deal with change, finding acceptance, and hearing God.  Tonight we looked at change and how we can learn to live through change.  We looked at the life of Joseph and discovered some commitments to make if we want to live through change and allow God to use change as a way to grow us.  The first is to check our focus.  God reminds us that He can use all situations to bring good in our lives, as stated in Romans 8:28.  We challenged each other to check and make sure our focus in on God and not our circumstances.  Another commitment we challenged students to make was to remember that God is always with us, even when we are going through change.  We reminded them that in every situation of change that Joseph found himself in, scripture says that God was with him.  The final commitment we challenged student to make in order to live through change was to commit to talk about it with others.  We encouraged them to have godly friends who they could talk with about what is going on, as well as other godly adults and their parents.     

 In their group time, students, with the help of their life group leaders, chose what they thought were the 3 biggest types of change that middle schoolers had to deal with.  They then talked about what made those so difficult.  They read Romans 8:28, and then brainstormed some ways that God could bring good from those situations. 

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• How did it feel when you walked in as a celebrity on the red carpet at Remix? (hopefully they say something along the lines of important)
• What are some things that I do that make you feel important and valued?  What are some things that I could do to make you feel more important and valued?
• What are some changes that you are facing this year in middle school?  What makes them so scary?  What are some good things that God could bring through these changes?
• How does knowing that God is always with you make you feel about these changes?  How would it be different if you did not have God with you? 
• Talk to them about a time when you faced change in your own life…maybe even a time when you were a middle schooler and faced change.

We took some time this week remind our students about something really cool about God.  We challenged our students to remember that God gives us a fresh start each day!  That’s a cool thought….no matter what yesterday looked like or what happened, today is a brand new day!  God has already let go of yesterday.  If that’s true, then this is a brand new year in school, which means it’s a brand new year, and no matter what happenedlast year, we get a fresh start over!  With that in mind, we challenged our students to let go of whatever the past looked like, and start to dream about what God would have for them this year! 

 In their group time, they met their new life group leaders for the year, as well as the people who are in their group.  Our upcoming 6th graders all met together with all their leaders to determine who would work best in each group.  In group we talked about why our life groups are important, and went over a few guidelines that help group be the best that it can be.  We challenged each student to commit to be involved 100% in their group this year.

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• Who is your life group leader?  Who all is in your life group?
• What are you most excited about this year? 
• What are some things that have happened in the past that you need to let go of? (this is always a better questions when it is preceded by you sharing some things as a parent that you need to let go of)
• What do you think God wants to do in and through you this year?  How can I help you achieve that? 

Check back on a regular basis to get information about what you life group is doing outside Wednesday night!