Bible Bites ~ LOVE

I got an email from a reader today, she included in her email photos of how she used February's LOVE printables and theme in her home. I thought her photos and ideas were SO cute I just had to share!

Here's what she told me: "We use 1 Corinthians 13 as part of the formation for our house rules. The lesson came just when I was debating how to better teach the rules to our children. We hand out a flower when someone acts out in LOVE to encourage good behaviour. "

How cute is that? What a great idea, thanks Erna for sharing it with me and allowing me to share your great idea on the blog!

Bible Bites ~ LOVE Week 4

Love (Week 4)

The greatest thing we can do for our tots is to encourage them to love Jesus themselves. Bread: Read Luke 10: 38-42, with your tot.

Bite: Explain or act out the difference between Martha's good choice (getting things ready) and Mary's better choice (sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to His teaching). Each person must enjoy his own relationship with Jesus; this is the best thing we can do!

Believing: This week, foster your tot's love-relationship with Jesus. Let your tot witness you enjoying Jesus, reading His word, praying, singing to Him...

Then, schedule about 10 minutes each day for your tot to sit quietly in a comfortable place and talk with Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit will meet your tot in the moments when she is alone; that the Holy Spirit will awaken a vibrant and personal relationship with your tot when he is in bed at night, when he plays in the woods, and when he works on a craft. This is true love.

Bible Bites ~ LOVE...week 3

Love (1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 8) ...Week 3

Click here to see Week One

Click here to see Week Two

BREAD: Aim to read 1 Corinthians 13: 1- 3 once a day to your tot during a meal or a snack. (This happens to be my favorite - or, most successful - tactic to increase my tot's attention span!) If this is a new habit for you, I suggest you choose a regular time and pattern for your reading and within a few days, you both will be accustomed to enjoying God's Word together.

BITE: "Without God's love, we have nothing; but with God's love, we have everything."

BELIEVING: Make the Scriptures come alive for your little one with these simple ideas:

• Sit on the kitchen floor with an assortment of pots and pans; wooden spoons and measuring cups. (and ear plugs, if necessary; you'll see why in a moment!) Script: "God loves us in a special way. He wants us to love Him and each other in that special way. If I do not LOVE God's way, I have nothing! But if I do love God's way, I have everything!" Read 1 Corinthians 13:1 aloud. "Even if I say really fancy words, but don't love God's way, I actually sound JUST AWFUL! It's kind of like this: If I say 'I love you because you give me presents and give me lots of attention.' I'm not loving the way God wants me to love and I really sound like this: (Say the words again, but clang pots and pans all over to totally cover up your words. The more alarming you make this, the better your point will be!) Didn't that sound JUST AWFUL? That's not God's way of loving each other." And then - you guessed it - help your tot come up with other "unloving" examples and excuses to bang those pots and pans! It'll be lots of loud fun! Remember to drive home the point that without God's love, we sound JUST AWFUL!


• Write 1 Corinthians 13:2 on a post-it-note. Dust off your biggest, heaviest book and show it off to your tot. (Try this: Can he hold it with both arms? How about with one arm?) Script: "There's A LOT of knowledge in this book. It would take me days and days and days to read and memorize all of this knowledge! If I understood everything in this book, I would be very proud of myself! Wouldn't you think I was so smart?! Maybe you'd call me THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD! But God says that even if I knew all of the stuff in this book, but didn't love God's way, I'd be NOTHING! Not the SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, not even the HALF-smartest person in the world... I'd be NOTHING."
  Stand up with the book propped in your arms like the stereotypical sage. Attach the post-it note to the front of the book. Read 1 Corinthians 13:2 aloud. Drop the book with a thud hen you read the word "nothing" and hold your hands open, empty. Let your tot imitate the skit with a line like, "I am SO smart, but without love, I am (THUD!) nothing!" Wrap it up with, "God loves us in a special perfect way. He wants us to love Him and each other in that special way. If I do not LOVE God's way, I have nothing! But if I do love God's way, I have everything!"
  
• One morning, set up a bunch of your own valuable things in the living room alongside a big cardboard box or plastic bag. (Your purse, jewelry, your fly reel, whatever.) Invite your tot over to handle some of these things and talk briefly about how much you value these things. Read 1 Corinthians 13: 3.
  Script: As you pack each item into the box or bag, explain to your tot, "What if I packed up all of these wonderful things and gave them away JUST BECAUSE I wanted everyone to know how generous I am; JUST BECAUSE I want to be famous for giving away all of my favorite things? What if I did it without God's love?"
  Once you have everything packed up slide the box behind the couch or out of the room so that it is out of sight and sorrowfully say, "I'd give it all away, and I'd have NOTHING in return." Open your hands, empty.
  "But, we both know that when we give gifts WITH God's love, we get so much happiness in return. Today, let's each find one of our favorite treasures to give away... but let's do it with love in our hearts so that we get happiness in return."
  Together, find something that you each can give away in love. Be sure that the delivery and the "return of happiness" happens in the same day. And because you have it memorized by now, conclude your Situation with: "God loves us in a special perfect way. He wants us to love Him and each other in that special way. If I do not LOVE God's way, I have nothing! But if I do love God's way, I have everything!"

Bible Bites ~ LOVE Week 2

Did you know that St. Valentine had a heart for marriage, in particular? At a time when marriage was illegal, Valentine performed private marriage ceremonies at the risk of his own life!

Hebrews 13: 4 says that "marriage should be honored by all"; that includes our tots! We teach them the truth of this verse by honoring our own marriages: speaking highly of, working peacefully with, and having fun with our spouses. We also teach them this truth by honoring other marriages: babysitting a friend's tot so she and her husband can spend an hour together, praying for our parents' marriages, or gently reminding a girlfriend about her vows. Besides our daily behaviors, we can deliberately teach our tot to honor marriage by teaching them about marriage from a young age.

This week, take some time to look through your wedding album with your tot. Talk about how you promised to love and stay with your spouse as long as you live. Talk about your dress, the flowers, the special traditions you chose, the limo. Sing your wedding song. Let your tot try on your ring. Above all, make sure your tot hears you say, "God created marriage! He wants a daddy and mommy to love each other just like Jesus loves us!"

Then, plan a special candle-lit dinner for the family. Let them see you and your spouse sit next to each other, hold hands, and talk kindly to each other. If you have a bunch of little ones, this blissful plan might only last for 2.7 minutes, but the experience will influence their view of marriage forever!

If you are single or were never married, crash your best friend's wedding album together, and listen to her stories. Plan a special candle-lit dinner for your family and talk about the qualities of a beautiful marriage in your circle of friends. What a wonderful example of Hebrews 13:4!

And finally, before bed each night, let your tot hear you pray a blessing on their future, including their possible spouse!

Simply Made ~ LOVE Printables

Laura's Bible Bites post got me thinking and I knew I could easily come up with something to make our LOVE poster a bit more snazzy! I went into Publisher and got busy creating hearts for the words, a love title for the poster board itself, and a kid-friendly copy of the verse to refer back to all week (month) as we work on the poster. We put ours on the back of our dishwasher which faces into our living room, so it will be nice to see all month long...The heart cards are in this bag for the boys to pull out each day (I will be doing this with my tot age 32 mos and my 6 1/2 year old)...I have provided each in PDF format to share with all of you. Just click here to get to it (scroll down)! You can see the actual pages below. I printed mine in color, on cardstock, but you could print in BW on paper less expensively!

Although it is not a tool your tot can use over and over again, it's one you will use all month long (or as long as it takes for you to pull out and teach all of the hearts), and maybe again in years to come! I hope you enjoy using Laura's idea as much as we are at our house, and I hope these simple tools can help you teach this valuable lesson to your tots~and even your bigger kiddos (ideas for bigger kiddos are on my personal blog, 1+1+1=1 if you're interested)!

I also pulled out all of our LOVE books and put them in a basket near the area so we could read 1-2 per day to keep us focused on LOVE! Be sure to see some great LOVE books on the right sidebar, we ordered many of these (or own them already) and plan to use them all month long!

Bible Bites ~ LOVE Week 1

"Bible Bites exists to encourage us to talk with our tots about God's word when we are sitting in our houses, walking outside, going to bed, and waking up in the morning! Check in each week this month as I write, for a focus Scripture (the BREAD), a simple concept (the BITE) that will help us to apply the Scripture throughout our days, and a handful of lessons (the BELIEVING) that we can imitate, edit, or embellish. A Script is available simply as a suggestion of how to explain some abstract concepts to our little ones. May our tots hide God's Word in their hearts!" Love (1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 8)

Ah, February. The LUV month. Amidst all of the red puffy hearts, specially-wrapped chocolates, and retro valentine cards, let's take a few minutes each day to set each tot's heart on TRUE LOVE.

This month, we're going to be introducing our tots to the definition of LOVE that will carry them through the relational ups and downs of life. Besides, LOVE is God's greatest attribute, His most important commandment, and His most rewarding gift.

WEEK ONE...

BREAD: Aim to read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a once a day to your tot during a meal or a snack. (This happens to be my favorite - or, most successful - tactic to increase my tot's attention span!) If this is a new habit for you, I suggest you choose a regular time and pattern for your reading and within a few days, you both will be accustomed to enjoying God's Word together.

BITE: Love is patient and kind! Love thinks of others first!

BELIEVE: Hang a poster with "Love..." at the top. Attach an envelope that contains paper hearts; each heart bearing a "Love" description from 1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8a (is patient, is kind, etc.). Each day, your tot will choose a heart and tape it on the poster. Throughout the day, sing songs about that word, practice that word together, and pray that it would grow in your home.

'Need some examples to get ya going?

Patient: You might say, "Being patient means waiting for something. When you love someone, you will wait for them. God loves all of us so much that He is waiting patiently for more and more people to meet and believe in Jesus! Now, I know that you love me and that you can be patient. Let's practice! Run across the room and wait patiently until I can make it over to you for a hug."

(Let the child wait 10 - 20 seconds before walking over to the child and rewarding him with a big hug and, "You love me! You were patient with me!")

"Now, I'm going to call So-and-so for 3 minutes. Because you love me, you'll wait patiently and quietly while I talk on the phone." (You might want to ask, "do you need to go the bathroom before I make my call? I won't be able to help you until I've hung up the phone.") An egg timer will help your tot see that time IS passing and that your phone call will, actually, come to an end! In fact, egg timers seem to be so mesmerizing for older tots that you might even get in a SIX minute phone call tomorrow. Be sure to make this call reasonably short, but long enough to build a little "muscle" in your tot. After the phone call, encourage your tot's good behavior and read a book together. (You get bonus points if the book has ANYthing to do with patience and/or if it is the one-millionth time you have read it and doing so "one more time" builds your own patience muscle!)

Of course, all day long, you'll be singing, "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..." (Learn it here)

Kind: When your tot pulls "is kind" out of the envelope, you know you have a fun day ahead of you! All day long, look for ways that the two of you can do kind things for each other and other family members. Help your tot clean up big bro's toys, take Daddy's shoes off for him, fluff your pillow, or draw a picture for baby sister. Kindness is one of those qualities that our tots learn best by doing with us!

I'll be posting ideas for the other 1 Corinthians 13 words** at my personal blog: 10 Million Miles. Come on over! Here is the link to her direct post listing other words and ideas for you!

And, click here to see a Simply Made idea to help you with this Bible Bites activity!

**As Laura adds ideas to her personal blog, we'll add direct links to her specific post, so check her blog or check back here if you're looking for more specific ideas for the LOVE words!