Temptation
Our daughter loves ice cream more than anyone I have ever known. She can hardly contain herself with it so it was the perfect way for her to feel tempted.
We put blueberries and ice cream in front of her and told her not to eat the ice cream but she could have the blueberries. We then left the room and watched from where she couldn't see us. She poked the ice cream with her fork but eventually it down and ate the blueberries. It was a great way to talk about temptation. After that we read the story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness from the bible (NIrV), using felts to illustrate. Although I must admit that our daughter now thinks Jesus was offered ice cream instead of bread...
We then talked about how Jesus and His words (Jesus answered temptation with the word of God, nothing else) help us to beat temptation.
"For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Heb. 2:18
The next morning for breakfast she got an ice cream breakfast with a little real ice cream too.
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As a seed grows...
We did an activity to compare how we grow in Jesus to the way a seed grows.
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Julie Craig's pictures |
This was done with pots but we will continue the lesson when we start a garden.
I made a little "book" for each kid so they could refer to the lessons as their seed grew. It is nothing special, just a series of pictures tied together.
"The garden of the heart must be cultivated. The soil must be broken up by repentance. The evil growths that choke the good grain must be uprooted. As soil once overgrown with thorns can be reclaimed only by diligent labor so the evil tendencies of the heart can be overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ." Child Guidance pg. 57
There are more explanations and resources on this topic in Child Guidance on page 56 (and throughout the book).
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Triumphal Entry
In preparation for Easter, we are doing stories of the last week of Jesus life. This weekend was focused on the triumphal entry.
The story was read from My Bible Friends illustrated with felts. We cut a palm branch off our plant for our daughter to wave, it was a very big hit! While she waved her palm branch, we sang the Hosanna song.
This was Sabbath morning breakfast and she told us that Jesus rode the donkey.
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Jesus makes our hearts clean
An simple object lesson of what Jesus does for us...while doing the dishes
"Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin."
Psalm 51:2
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John 6, the feeding of the 5000.
We wanted to identify more with the little boy who shared his lunch with Jesus.
The little boy's mother would have made the 5 loaves of bread that he took with him to see Jesus.
While waiting for the bread to rise, we read the story.
Once the bread had baked, we made a basket of 5 loaves and 2 VERY small fish which the boy's father would have caught - or purchased a bag of from Pepperidge Farms!
It was time for the story to be acted out and for our little girl to give her "lunch" to Jesus. I know it is old school, but we have really appreciated having a set of Bible felts with which we are able to tell Bible stories.
We hope to have identified with the little boy and his family a little more. At the end we sang a song (we still need to add chords).
For older children, the texts of John 6:31-35, Deuteronomy 8:3 and Jeremiah 15:16 could be tied in for depth and challenging them to "eat" of the word each day.
