Families today are often in a rush and opportunities for real connection are few. It’s important that parents and their children have opportunities where they can share what’s going on in their heart and lives. The difficult part is, how?

When I worked as a child psychotherapist, I found it was easier for children to answer deep questions about themselves when it was in the context of a game, than it was for me to ask them outright. I had a couple of board games I used where they had to answer the question written on the card. I often learned more about the child through the board games, than had I not used a game. I decided to use a similar idea to develop a “Family Conversation Jar.”

Great conversation occurs around the dinner table. It’s also a great time to “teach Jesus” to our children. When a conversation centers around issues of faith, we can learn a lot about what is going on in the hearts of our children. The purpose of the conversation jar is to provide a context in which issues of faith can be discussed. The idea is to pull out a question about once a week and each person in the family takes a turn answering it. Not all the questions are deep questions of faith. Some questions pertain to family issues, others are opportunities to share likes and dislikes. There are a mixture of serious and not so serious topics in the jar.

It’s important to develp a safe environment for everyone to share what’s on their mind and heart. Let them openly share their concerns and fears. This makes for richer discussion and hopefully a closer, more unified family.

To see the list of questions, click here. You may want to add or subtract questions based on the age and maturity of your children. I would love to hear about your dinner-time experiences!