I was so proud of him because the first thing he said this morning was...
"I know what the whites ones are! They're free!"
I then went on to explain a bit more about WHY the white ones are free. So I've decided that each time we do something that teaches him about Jesus and his free gift to us (his life and his grace), we will put a white jelly bean in the jar. Examples include going to church, doing the "Resurrection Eggs" activity, reading a book about Jesus or about Easter, etc.
So here is our Jelly Bean container! For those of you out there who don't know about the Astoria Flatware Caddy, it's uses are literally endless!
Note that we have a LOT of greens... that's because we are working very hard on obedience! And boy do we have a lot of occasions to work on this virtue!
One final thought...
Do you think 4 year olds can understand the concept of a sacrifice?
I believe that they can!
When we were reviewing the colors and their meanings this morning, after we discussed purple, Noah said...
"Well... I'd like to make a little sacrifice today. I want to give something to God that I really like a lot. What do you think will be hard?"
I am not exagerating!
So we decided together that he would give up sitting in his little red chair today. He loves his chair... but so does his Sissy! It is very hard for Noah to allow his Sissy to sit in his special chair.
Now... some of you may think this is mean to post, but he did get a little sad about his sacrifice! It lasted for all of about 15 seconds, but it did give us an opportunity to say a prayer to Jesus to ask for his help. And to talk about the very hard sacrifice that Jesus made for him! I love it though, because it is a human behavior... sacrifices ARE hard, but nothing compares to the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us!
Bless his little heart. He didn't give in (and neither did I even though I was tempted to!). He went all day long without his red chair and he even let his Sissy sit in it! I'm beyond proud!
And he was so proud to put in his purple jelly bean!
He inspired me to try harder with my own Lenten sacrifices. I am all too human and often give in to my temptations. I knew this activity would end up teaching me just as much, if not more, than it does Noah!
So finally, I must give thanks and credit to my mom, the kids' Nonny. She is the one who came up with this idea and she even bought our jelly beans! We have the best Nonny in the world! Thanks, mom, for helping me teach my little ones about faith... I'm forever grateful for your knowledge, insight, and example!
2 comments:
What a great lenten activity - I'll have to file that one away until Melanie is old enough to understand. Leave it to your mom to think of such a great idea!
This is so awesome!
In response to your comment on my blog, the sleeping thru the night thing has been a long time coming, and I by no means think we're all the way there. We've tried to increase her daytime eating including giving a bedtime snack of some oatmeal and fruit. I really just try to take the approach of eating smaller amounts more frequently during the day. We still give her mainly pureed stuff as she hasn't seemed to figure out the whole finger food thing. She really seems to enjoy fruits, and Earths Best (Target and Babies R Us carry this brand) makes some really cool fruit and grain combos in their Stage 2 jars that are quite tasty, plus due to the whole grain they have more fiber and even a bit of protein in them. Other than that we've made all her baby food and that has been fun. Plus, I push the milk (whole milk) like crazy thru-out the day.
We've also tried at night, if she awakens before midnight/1ish, Aaron gets up with her instead of me, which sends the message no nursing before midnight, or whatever. And that has maybe made a difference too.
Other than that, don't know what to tell you except been there, done that, and probably will still be "doing that". I am just comforted to hear the number of parents whose 1yr olds still awaken (no offense), just makes me feel like I'm not the only one.
GOOD LUCK! And keep me posted. And for the record, Gemma's just 20 lbs, so she's not too far ahead of Emmie, especially considering that she (Gemma) had quite a bit of height.
Cheers!
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