Discussion Questions for Yours Forever

1.What kind of relationship do Christy and Rick have in the beginning of the book? How does Christy feel about it? How does she feel about the kisses from Rick? How were they different from Todd’s kiss? Why do you think Rick ignores Christy the rest of the night? Do you think it’s right that Christy wants a relation with both boys?

2. How does Christy ask permission to meet Todd for breakfast? Was there a better way to handle it? What do you think her parents would have said if she had been completely honest. How did Todd handle the addition of David to their breakfast? How would you have felt about him giving so much attention to your brother? What does it say about Todd?

3. Christy starts a journal entry with “It seems when dreams come true they never turn out the way you dreamed them. They twist and turn and disappoint, leaving you wanting so much more. I don’t know which to blame: the dream itself or the reality that dissolves the dream.” Have you ever felt this way? Have you had dreams that didn’t turn out quite the way you expected them to? Have they ever ended up even better than you expected?

4. Tracy chooses not to tell Christy who she is interested in because she doesn’t want to play games. Do you think that was a wise decision? How do you think the week would have turned out if Christy had known who Tracy was interested in? How might it have gone better? How might it have been worse? What usually happens when friends find out about a secret crush?

5. What word do you think best describes the relation that Christy has with Todd and her friends?

6. Tracy suggests reading and discussing a book of the Bible together. Have you ever done that with your friends? What book did you choose? What did you learn from it? What did these friends learn from reading 1 John?

7. What happens on the group outing to the skating rink? What kind of misunderstandings occurred? What do you think Christy and her friends could have done differently to make the outing turn out differently? Have you ever had a misunderstanding with friends like this? What did you do? How did it turn out?

8. Do you think Todd had a right to feel jealous? Did Tracy? What did you think of Heather’s advice to Christy? Is making someone jealous the best strategy for gaining their attention?

9. How did you react to the news that Alissa was pregnant? How did Christy react? How did Todd react? What did you think of their responses? What is the best thing we can do for a friend in this situation?

10. Christy takes her disappointment and anger out on Aunt Marti. How did that end up making her feel? Have you ever done that before? How did it make you feel?

11. Do you think Aunt Marti had good intentions in wanting to influence Christy? How might Christy have handled her conversation with Aunt Marti differently? What does she learn that helps her to understand her aunt a little better?

12. Doug is concerned that if starts a relationship with Tracy that it will affect his other friendships. Have you ever seen that happen? What is the best way to keep your relationships with a boyfriend/girlfriend and your other friends healthy and balanced?

13. Doug has a card on his visor with verses from Psalm 139 that say “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord”. Why do you think Doug chose this verse to place on his visor? What do you think this verse means and how does it make you feel? Christy wonders why if God knows all these things, why he lets her mess up so much. Why do you think God allows us to make our own choices, even when they may not be the best ones?  

14. Were you surprised when Todd was at the New Years Eve dinner? Why do you think Christy’s parents decided to let Christy go to the party with Todd?

15. Christy remembers seeing a little girl in the store who is learning to walk and keeps falling, only to get up and try again. Todd gives examples of people in the Bible who have messed up and reminds Uncle Bob that God gives us new chances. Have you ever felt like the little girl, or those in the Bible who have messed up? Does it encourage you to know that God doesn’t give up on us? What does Todd say it is important for us to do when we mess up? How do we get right again? What do we need in our life to encourage us to keep trying to get it right?

16. What lessons do think Christy learned in this book? What is the most important thing that you learned?

Thriving Family also has some questions HERE.

November meeting

We had a great time at our meeting last night! Our next meeting will be

November 19, 2012
7:00-9:00pm
Book:  Yours Forever

We will have a "God Lovers" jar at each meeting. We will be collecting spare change at each meeting and will save it up to donate to a charity for Christy's birthday in July. In May or June, we will choose the charity to donate to.

Discussion Questions for A Whisper and A Wish

1.      Christy moves to California in this book. Did she like this move? Were were some of the positive things about moving? What were some of the negative things? Have you ever had to move? How did you feel about that?

2.      When Christy learns that she missed a chance to see Todd when she arrived back in California, her friend Leslie tells her not to dwell in the “Land of If Only”. We can’t keep wishing our circumstances were different but must believe God is in control and nothing happens by mistake. This is a reoccurring theme in the book. What are some other situations that occur that Christy wishes might have happened differently? How does she learn to trust God through them? Can you think of some times that you have thought “if only”? How did you learn to trust God more through those circumstances?

3.      Uncle Bob gives Christy a journal to record her thoughts in. Do you have a journal? Does it help you to work through difficult times in your life?

4.      Christy’s mom is fairly cautious about Christy attending a party with girls she has just met, calling the parents and checking out the situation before leaving Christy. Why do you think she did what she did? What would you think if your mom did that?

5.      Have you ever TPed a house before, or has someone done that to your house? Were you surprised that Janelle’s mom helped them pull of the prank? What would you have done if you had been Christy in this situation? What would you have said to Rick?

6.      Christy and her friends discover that Brittany has an eating disorder. How did they handle the situation? What could they have done differently? What do you think you would do if you discovered that one of your friends was dealing with this issue? Why did Brittany feel that she needed to lose weight? Whose standards should we judge ourselves by when making decisions about our bodies and our images?

7.      What should Christy have done with the pills that Brittany gave her? Have you ever been in a situation like this? How did you handle it?

8.      Katie tells Christy that her pastor said that to grow as a Christian; we need to let the Lord into every area of our life. What would that look like to let the Lord be a part of everything we do? How would that affect the things we do and say and the decisions we make?

9.      In church, the youth leader talks about the scripture “Bad company corrupts good character.” Can you think of some examples of that in the book? Do you think Christians should befriend or date others who are not Christians? How can we be a good example to non Christians without letting them pull us down? How can we be better friends to our Christian friends? Which of Christy's friends helped her the most? Which ones should she have been more cautious about listening to?

10.  Christy allows her friends to lead her into a decision that had very bad consequence. Have you ever had trouble with letting others make decisions for you or are you good at standing up for what you think is right? How else could Christy have handled this situation so that it turned out better?

11.  Christy said she learned that no matter what happens to her, the Lord goes before her and is with her. How was the Lord with her in this situation? How did He help her during this trial? Can you think of a difficult time that you have gone through when the Lord helped you through it? How does it make you feel to know that no matter what we go through, God is there with us?

12.  More than one person tells Christy that the most beautiful girls are the innocent ones. What does that mean?

13.  Christy learns the importance of saying “no”, but Todd also teaches her the importance of saying “yes” to the right things. What are some examples of things we should say yes or no to?

14.  What was your favorite and least favorite parts of this book?

15.   Who did you relate to the most in this book?

16.  What lessons did Christy learn? What was the most important lesson you learned from reading this book?

Thriving Family also has discussion questions for this book. You can find them at THIS LINK. 

Peculiar Treasures October meeting

Our next meeting will be:

Monday, October 15, 2012
7:00-9:00 PM
First Baptist Church of St. Charles
High School Girls Room (Room # 201 off gym)


We will be discussing A Whisper and a Wish by Robin Jones Gunn.

The first meeting of the Peculiar Treasures Club

We had our first meeting of the new Peculiar Treasures club this week. It was a great success. There were several new friends to meet as well as some that attended our Christy party this summer. We had a slight conflict with an Awana skating night so some of our old friends weren't able to attend but we look forward to them joining with us next month.

We passed around the photo book that we made up of pictures from the party. We had a great discussion on A Summer Promise and we played our Forever Friends game while eating snacks. I went through our large stack of traffic light cards and selected cards that could be answered by reading just the first book (plus a few general questions). This made it easier for those who are just starting to read the series and so that we didn't give way any spoilers.

Here are a few pictures from the night. 

Acting out one of the Memorial Stone verse cards.

Discussion for Summer Promise

When our group discussed Summer Promise, we used the questions from the Focus on the Family "Thriving Family" site. You can find those questions HERE. We added a few questions of our own, but the questions at that site are a pretty good start.

Here are questions that we added:

What do you think about Todd continuing to hang out with his surfer friends who aren't Christians?

What did you think of Todd's story about getting to heaven? What it helpful to you? Do you think it was a pretty accurate description?

We also discussed the relationship between Christy and Tracy and why Christy felt jealous of Tracy, Bob and Marti's philosophy of life and how they responded to Shawn's accident. We discussed how Christy handled what happened at the party and what we should do in a similar situation. And as always, we discussed our favorite and least favorite parts of the book and which characters we most related to or liked best. Sorry I don't have questions for those topics written out. I just jotted down ideas for discussion on a print out of the Focus on the Family questions. But, these should help you get started!

Peculiar Treasures Club

We had so much fun with the party, and after spending so much time making the game that we don't want it to just collect dust, that we are pleased to announce the new Peculiar Treasures Club!

We will meet monthly at First Baptist Church of St. Charles to discuss the books and to play the games. Our first meeting is Sept 17, 2012 at 7:00pm and we will be discussing A Summer Promise!

Happy Birthday Christy!

The signs say "Happy Birthday Christy" and "Thank you Robin!"

The girls hold a sign that says
"We love Christy! Please make a Christy movie for us! Thank you, Christy Miller Fans"
Robin had posted a request that fans pray for things to start moving for a Christy production and for us to write notes saying how we would like a production to be made so we made this picture.

Costumes/photo shoot

Alex as Sierra

Jessica as Tikki

Faith as Katie

Moriah

Dannielle

Arianna as Sierra

Grace as Christy

Opening Goodie Bags

The girls check out their goodie bags.

Winning prizes

Playing the games

Here are the girls playing our Forever Friends board game and Gunnopoly.

Four Car Pile Up on a game space. The girls had fun stacking the cars when they landed on the same spaces.

Refreshments

Food is ready!

Watermelon Shark

Beach Cake

Fire Pit

Gluten Free Cupcakes

Toppings for "Balboa Bar Sundaes"

Decorations

Ready for the party!