I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
We know that every good gift comes from God and the gift of kindness is no exception.
Kindness makes our heart smile. It gives us warm fuzzies. Receiving kindness makes us want to give kindness too!
Kindness Cookies
That’s where these fantastic kindness cookies come into play. You see, this month’s Family Time Training Activity, “Kindness”, is not just a one day activity. It’s about intentionally creating the attribute of kindness in kids and adults of all ages. (Truly, even we as adults need this reminder in our lives…like during rush hour traffic.)
This Kindness Activity includes:
The Kindness Activity Script, which has all the Bible verse references and important thoughts to share during the activity.
Act of Kindness Worksheet, which include great acts of kindness ideas.
Act of Kindness Calendar, which is used to show which acts of kindness you’ve completed.
Click here to download this month’s FREE activity!
The idea is to write the Acts of Kindness ideas provided in the worksheet on slips of paper and even brainstorm your own, then choose one of these each day to fulfill. An extra fun way to choose your Act of Kindness for the day is by turning it into a Kindness Cookie, which of course looks like a fortune cookie.
Don’t miss the end of this post, where we share how else we used these Kindness Cookies.
Making Kindness Cookies
I found this easy to follow video tutorial by Red Ted Art that shows you how to make paper fortune cookies. I used these fortune cookies and put our Random Acts of Kindness inside each one. This way the kids will take turns each day choosing a brightly colored Kindness Cookie that will reveal one way our family can focus on being kind.
Our next to youngest got to choose the first Kindness Cookie, because without prodding, he helped his sister clean up water that was accidentally spilled on the floor.
Going Beyond the Activity
There are so many ways that we can implement the ideas given in this “Kindness” Activity. One idea that popped to mind was to fill these Kindness Cookies with what we love and appreciate about somebody else. Giving the gift of recognition is sweet!
Our girls, along with one of their friends, filled out the slips of paper that go inside the cookies, ran to their fort, and gifted them to each other. The anticipation grew as they picked up each cookie, gently pulled out the slips and read the kind words written about each of them. Of course, their mile-wide smiles expressed what the kind words meant to them.
There are so many people in our lives who do not know how much we value them. We will one day speak of how wonderful they were at their funerals but why not take a few moments while it still matters, to share with them the jewel of a person they are? Make a batch of Kindness Cookies that they can enjoy and be encouraged by over the next several days or month.
However you choose to use the Kindness Cookies, we know that you will not only make someone else’s day a little brighter but you will delight God with your kindness.
An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. – Proverbs 12:25
Prayer over Your Heart
Part of the prayerencouraged in the script is to…
“pray that God would give you a kind heart like His.”
How beautiful is that?
Lord, we humbly come before you now. We want to serve you with all our hearts and want to serve others too. Help us open our hearts to you and see the opportunities you put before us, so that we can cheer others up with our kind words and actions. May we lay down our hearts so that you can pluck out the selfish nature that lies within it and allow you to mold our hearts to express your attributes including the attribute of kindness. In the One who displayed your kindness and love by stretching out his arms on the cross for us – Amen!
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
Teaching children how to be gentle in words, actions and thoughts is imperative so that they can reach out to others in love.
What do you think of when you hear the word “gentleness?”
Our children answered this in all different ways:
Soft
Kind
Like a warm blanket.
Like snow. (I’m assuming powdery snow and not a rock hard snowball!)
I think of my 3 year old son, putting his hand on my cheek, ever so softly, then caressing it down to my chin. He usually does this when he is trying to get something he wants. Sometimes, he does it to show me affection and love. It’s the sweetest thing ever! Reading over this month’s Family Time Training Activity called “Gentleness”, I couldn’t help but think about my son’s actions and wanting that same gentleness to take root in all of our family’s hearts so that we can reach more people for Christ.
Christ was bold, courageous and gentle!
Those descriptions do not always flow together well in our modern day minds. However, we see that it is possible to live this out. It is one of many things we are called to be. We are called to be strong and courageous but also have the Fruit of the Spirit:
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control
(This is a fun song to help your kids remember all the fruits of the spirit.)
Our youngest son trying to gently blow this “jumping” paper ball into a jar. Blow too forcefully and it will jump straight out of the jar! This ball much like people does not like to be forced to do anything.
How do we see gentleness, boldness, and courage in Jesus’ life?
There are many instances, where Jesus is bold, but at the same time seems to display gentleness in his thoughts, words and deeds.
In speaking to the woman at the well, Jesus calls her to confront her current reality while sharing with her a hope she has never known and showing her a better way.
When facing the soldiers who came to arrest him with swords drawn, Jesus told them he was the man they were looking for, then after Peter cut off Marcus’ ear, Jesus gently picked it up and healed him.
Gentleness isn’t instinctive. It’s definitely something that our children will not learn from this social media enraged age. It’s one of those traits that the Spirit really has to help us hone (well, maybe some more than others) and remind us of constantly.
Do you remember once your children started to move how often you would say be gentle? Whether it was their excitement at trying to pet a dog and nearly slapping the poor thing to death, or a toddler trying to hug a younger sibling but accidentally putting the younger in a choke hold, the reminder of being gentle seems to constantly be escaping our lips.
What age is this activity for & a Tip!
This activity is great for kids of all ages including moms & dads!
If you are thinking “I don’t have time for an extra devotional activity”, I’ll share a tip. Read the devotional part together over dinner and then do the activity after a quick clean up. Paper plates aid in clean up time and the kids move faster when they know there is a fun activity coming.
Gentle in Thoughts, Words, & Deeds
Many times, we relate being gentle to our actions that’s why I appreciate how the Family Time Training devotional activity relates it to our thoughts and words as well!
Our whole family had so much fun with this activity! It was hilarious, frustrating and gave us PLENTY of opportunity to practice being gentle with each other and the paper ball. (Get it while it’s free during the month of March. If you’re reading this after, March click on the previous link to find the current month’s free devotional activity.)
It took us a little while to figure out that we couldn’t forcefully blow the paper ball into the jar because it causes them to jump out!
My gang is pretty competitive. We have been working for a while on not getting upset when we don’t do something perfectly the first time. After reading through the activities and seeing that the first part of the activity was designed to be impossible to accomplish, I warned them that even if they get frustrated to do their best to maintain gentleness and self-control. We had to remind them a couple of times but overall, they did a great job.
The second part of the activity, which is blowing a paper ball into a pop bottle or in our case a glass jar, is possible but it’s all in the approach.Can you guess what kind of approach we must take? A gentle one!
Gentle blows work best, but we also learned that sometimes a more forceful blow depending on the angle will work as well. In the end, it’s all in the approach and as long as we are approaching each situation in a loving way, that we ourselves would appreciate, then we will be displaying gentleness and the fruit of the Spirit.
Prayer over our heart
Lord, you say whatever we ask in your name you will give us. We simply ask today that you will help us to let gentleness take root in our hearts. It’s much easier said than done. Instead of letting anger and our frustrations overcome us, help us to breathe and remember that gentleness draws people in instead of pushing them away. Help us to become more like you and grow into your shinning lights. In learning gentleness, we will be able to reach more people for you. In the One who was bold and gentle at the same time – Amen!
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
An activity that we recently did has stirred up a lot of excitement in our house. Our kids are now enthusiastically thinking of new things they can talk to God about.
So what activity has caused this excitement? It’s Family Time Training’s free activity of the month called the Prayer Wall. It digs in to how Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith and our prayer life. It’s fun to hear what kids guess what they think a cornerstone is and how that applies to Jesus and our faith. Then when they begin to understand that without Jesus we have no hope of a connection to God, they see how he is the cornerstone of our faith. Not only does it discuss this concept but it brings in a hands-on activity that is acting as a daily reminder to us how he is our cornerstone.
It’s Time to Build a Prayer Wall
Mom, are we really going to build a wall?
Our kiddos adding what they would like to pray for to our prayer wall.
So no, we are not building an actual wall but using note cards to build a prayer wall on our already existing wall. For those who want to wear their hard hats for this process feel free, but I promise there will be no plaster or actual bricks needed. Just grab your note cards, markers, or magazines to cut up and let the ideas roll. We are even planning on printing out pictures of people we are praying for so as we walk by and see who needs a prayer, we can do it then and not have to wait for our formal prayer time. Teaching our kids that prayer doesn’t have to be rigid and can happen anytime, anyplace, anywhere is teaching them that they are always important to God, no matter what is going on in their lives. He loves them and wants a relationship with them always.
Prayer is the link that connects us with God. – A.B. Simpson
It’s Time to Praise God for Everything
So what can we pray about? That’s the great thing, we are told to pray about everything!
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying.
Ephesians 6:18
Family Time Training has a great list in their activity that will get your kids started thinking about all the things they can pray for and then they will continue to brainstorm and grow their own list. I’ve decided to keep a little basket of the note cards easily accessible so as they think of things to pray for they can either write them down or draw them and add to the wall quickly.
After hanging their first cards on the wall, my kids wanted to know what will happen when we fill up the wall. They came up with some great solutions:
We can take the answered prayers down and keep them in a treasure box.
We can leave them up and start on a new wall…maybe the ceiling!
When we move, we have to take all the cards with us.
This activity has totally got them excited about connecting with God and I am loving it. Like most families, we pray when we eat and when we go to bed and when random things happen throughout the day, but providing a way for our children to physically see what we are praying is a new experience for them and it gets them thinking about all the things they can pray about.
An extra little step…
Because my kids were so excited about the prayer wall, I decided to dedicate this wall in our house as the permanent prayer wall. We moved over our prayer painting that we had previously made to add a little extra color to the wall, while we wait for our prayers to fill it up. This wall is in the hub of our house. It’s small in the living room with entrances to both the kitchen and the hallway. It’s a wall we won’t be able to miss!
Creating this painting was simple. I simply printed out the word prayer in large font and glued the letters to a blank canvas. I let each child choose their favorite color and then painted their hands that color. Then they took turns, placing their hands all over the canvas.
This wall has been dedicated as the place to stick our prayers to God. With a reminder that Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith!
Get great activities like this one free every month from Family Time Training. This Prayer Wall activity is only available through October 2016, so get it now, even if you can’t do it until later.
What are some of the things your kids pray for?
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