Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

— Mark Twain

IN TODAY’S SESSION… We talked about our good sides and our bad sides. A story about a man and his son and their donkey made us think about peer pressure. We did Ethics Play and made an Ethics Obstacle Course, then talked about some common phrases that describe people’s characters. For Faith in Action, we made plans to strengthen our good sides.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about…

• Family characteristics. How are members of your families alike and different? Could outsiders tell by your looks that you are related? What about by your characters?
• Peer pressure. Does it affect your family? Do you sometimes worry about what the neighbors will think? Is it right or wrong to do that?
• The situation your group did in Ethics Play. What do family members and friends say the Star should do?

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try…

• Identifying obstacles. Think about something good your family wants to do. Maybe it is a way to help the environment or improve your neighborhood. What obstacles do you face? How will you get around those obstacles?
• Making family silhouettes. Help one another trace silhouettes of your faces. Look for differences and similarities.
• Finding characters you admire. Talk about some people in the news that family members admire. What are their characters like? Do you all agree about these people?

MYSTERY AND ME

How would you describe your character? Pretend that you are a friend of yours. Think of a paragraph that friend might write describing you to somebody else. Are there any mysterious parts in your character that are hard to see or to understand? If you are journaling, write your paragraph there. If you thought about one of your character strengths in Faith in Action, write that in your journal, too, along with some ideas about how to use that strength.

A FAMILY RITUAL

Talk each day about the right and wrong you have experienced. Did you each do something good you want to share? Is there somebody in the family you want to thank for a virtuous act? Is there something you wish you had not done that you need to talk about? How can you make tomorrow a better day?

A FAMILY GAME

Play character charades. Pick a person everybody in the family knows and try to act like that person so other people can guess who it is. You can talk in this game if you want. Try to show the character by how you say something, not what you say.

FAMILY DISCOVERY

Discover something you have never noticed before about one another’s characters. Talk about what you find. Does doing this help you understand each other better?