Before the Session

Facilitator: In advance of the session

• Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
• Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
• Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media).
• Preview both news clips below and confirm the links still play. If either becomes unavailable, search for a recent news story of a parent persistently advocating for a sick or endangered child and substitute it.
• Today’s stories involve children’s serious illness and children who have died. Be sensitive to group members for whom this may be tender ground.

Context

Say: On August 5, just days ago, a Senate committee once again advanced the Kids Online Safety Act. Behind that headline is a group of parents who have lost children to harms connected with social media. They have been coming to Washington since 2022 to plead for the bill. It passed the Senate almost unanimously in 2024, then stalled in the House. And still they come back, year after year, holding photographs of their children.