This week you will need:
Day Fourteen: ingredients for Dole Whip
Day Fifteen: Copies of the coloring page + colored pencils, crayons, markers, or watercolor paints
Day Sixteen: Flashlight
Day Seventeen: Coke, Mentos
Day Eighteen: Copies of the coloring page + coloring supplies
Day Thirteen: Monday: Love Your Enemies
Read Luke 6:27-36
OR
Jesus The Teacher, p.164-165 in Jesus Calling Bible Storybook
Discussion:
– Does Jesus’s command sound foolish to you?
– What would happen if Christians embraced the foolishness of the Gospel?
– Do you need to work on showing love to those you disagree with? With those who despise you? With those who curse you? With those who wish to see you fail? With those with different political opinions than you?
Activity:
– Role Playing: Sometimes it is helpful to work out scenarios and what we should do so when we encounter something similar, we know better how to respond. Keeping the words of Jesus in mind, how should the following scenarios play out?
• Your friend comes to visit. When they leave, you notice your new video game is missing. What should you do?
• A kid is talking bad about you on the playground. What should you do?
• Your brother takes your toy without asking and breaks it. What should you do?
• Your Facebook friend comments on your post about politics and calls you names. What should you do?
Make up other scenarios to fit your family and your child. Help talk them through the scenarios and what Jesus would have us do.
Day Fourteen: Tuesday: Jesus Cleanses The Temple
Read John 2:13-22
Discussion:
– Why was Jesus upset to find people selling animals and changing money in the temple?
– This passage is a fulfillment of prophesy. Why would that be important for the Jewish people? Why would it be important to us?
– Do we see people doing something similar in a modern context?
– Does Jesus sound a little bit crazy here?
– Did the passage of time make more sense out of his words?
Activity:
– Make a Whip! While my initial thought was to make an actual Indiana Jones style whip, with my crazy boys, I thought better of it. Less whelps on them all to explain later. However, there is a Pin on Pinterest for making a Paracord whip if you are feeling adventurous. We’re making Dole Whips. Because I’m a weanie. And I like food.
You’ll need 5 oz. almond milk, 5 oz. coconut milk, ½ cup pineapple juice, 2 ½ cups frozen pineapple chunks, sweetener of choice (honey for us). Blend it all in your blender. Enjoy! If you made paracord whips instead, Run!
Day Fifteen: Wednesday: Nicodemas
Read John 3:1-15
Discussion:
– Why was Nicodemas confused about being born again?
– Do you think those outside of our faith find this confusing, as well?
– How do physical things we do in our lives and church mirror eternal truths?
Activity:
– Jesus & Nicodemas Coloring Page (Remember to display the finished art with the rest of your Lenten artwork!)
Day Sixteen: Thursday: God Loves Us
Read John 3:16-21
Discussion:
– Have you ever memorized John 3:16? Have you ever looked closely at the verse that follow?
– Why would wicked people not want the light?
– Do you think it is important to let people into our lives to see what our lives really look like?
– What would you say living in the light looks like?
Activity:
– Listen to the song “Oh How He Loves Us”.
– Find the Light hide and seek. You’ll need it to be relatively dark. You can play as a group if you have smaller children. Grab a flashlight. One person turns on the flashlight and hides. The others look for that person, using the light as a guide to find them. Alternatively, you can have a flashlight show in your living room. Turn off all the lights, grab some flashlights, turn on some music about God’s love for us, and let the lights dance across the ceiling.
Day Seventeen: Friday: The Woman At The Well
Read John 4:7-30
Discussion:
– What does Jesus talking to a Samaritan show us?
– What is this living water?
– Why did the woman think Jesus was a prophet?
Activity:
– Mentos & Coke: This one is going to be messy. Grab a coke, or a Sprite if you want the water look, drop in a mento, run. Laugh. Be sticky. The kids will love seeing the “living water”!
Day Eighteen: Saturday: The Centurion’s Servant
Read Luke 7:2-10
Discussion:
– What faith did the Centurion show?
– Did he also show humility?
– Do we have faith like this? That a word can make us well? Heal our hurt? Our brokenness? Our problems?
Activity:
– Centurion Soldier Coloring Page (make sure you hang this finished work up with the rest of the Lenten art!)
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