Sixth Week of Lent

Monday--St. Patrick

I know St. Patrick's Day was yesterday, but ever since we read the book Flame Over Tara  (Sonlight Core 6) with the girls, I have felt that his is a story worth sharing.  

Kidnapped from his home in Brittany (France) by Irish pirates as a young man, Patrick remembered his mother's teaching while in captivity, came to faith, eventually escaped, and then turned around and went back to bring the gospel message to the people of Ireland.  He was a lover of Scripture and a passionate evangelist.  

I found a short summary of his life which agrees with what we learned in The Flame Over Tara.  Here is the link http://www.1timothy4-13.com/files/chr_vik/patrick.html

• Discuss the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8)

• Are we promised that it will be easy to share our faith?  (John 15:18, 2 Timothy 3:12, 1 Peter 4:12, 1 Peter 4:16)

• End by praying for those on foreign mission fields, as well as for opportunities to share the love of God where He has placed you.

Tuesday--Pretzels!

I had not realized that pretzels were originally a Lenten food, meant to be a visual call to prayer.  

From Joe Paprocki's "40 Ideas for 40 Days of Lent" website, "according to tradition, an Italian monk in the early 600s invented the pretzel as a reminder to his brother monks to pray during the season of Lent. He named his creation “little arms” which in Latin is “bracellae.” From this word came the German word bretzel (eventually pretzel)."

 Prayer ought to be the focus of our lives.  It is our line communication with our Heavenly Father.(1 John 5:14-15)  

It is a command. (Ephesians 6:18)  

It re-aligns our hearts with God's.  (Matthew 6:9-13)  

It is powerful. (Matthew 21:21-22)

It strengthens our faith. (Philippians 4:6-7)

It is effectual. (James 5:16)

It brings wisdom and direction. (James 1:5)  

What a delight!  And now we have another (yummy) reminder of it's place in our lives.

• Discuss some of the verses on prayer.

• Pass out pretzels to eat and explain the history of the pretzel.

• Or, if you have time, here is a simple recipe for Lenten pretzels http://daniellebean.com/recipes/breads-and-rolls/lenten-pretzels/  

•  End in the privilege of prayer. 

Wednesday--The Lord Sees the Heart

• The Bible says that "man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7)

• All of the things we are doing for Lent--or anytime, for that matter--mean nothing if they are not done with the right spirit.  We are to live lives of humility, love, devotion to one another, and holiness.  (Ephesians 4:1-6)

• Who are you when no one is watching?  That person is who you really are. You may fool the world, but God sees your heart.  (1 Kings 8:39)  Live in such a way to please the only One who matters!  

• Read Isaiah 58:1-14 and discuss it.  What is God telling the children of Israel about their "sacrifices"?  Why is God rejecting their good works?  What ought we learn from this?

Thursday--Looking for Clues

 This seems like a good review of the events in the last days of Christ's life--and especially engaging for the little ones.  Pictures of objects from the passion week are cut out for the purpose of helping children reconstruct the events (rope, thorns, robe etc.)   

You could cut out the pictures, put them into a hat, and have the children pull them out and tell from memory how they fit into the Easter story, or you could hide them in eggs around the room.  

Anyway, here is the link for this activity:  http://catechistsjourney.loyolapress.com/2009/03/16/4040-lenten-activities-looking-for-clues/

Friday--Imputation of Sin and Righteousness

What does imputation mean for us?  What did it mean for Christ?  Where does our righteousness come from?  What did it cost?
 
For this devotion, we use the book The Priest With Dirty Clothes  by R.C. Sproul (available from Christian Book Distributors for about $13 or from Ligonier Ministries)  

It is a great way to convey the heavy themes of sin, guilt, and justification in a way that children can understand, plus there are very good discussion questions in the back of the book for parents to use.  
  
(For us parents, John Piper's book Counted Righteous in Christ is a good place to firm up our understanding of this important doctrine.)

Saturday--The Unforgiving Servant

•  Read Matthew 18:23-35 as a family.  

• Assign parts and re-enact the parable as a drama.  If time allows, you could even do costumes and simple sets (depends on the ages and motivation of one's children--and their mother:)

• This story is a powerful lesson on forgiveness!  We are not to keep accounts with one another.  We forgive on the basis of how much we have been forgiven, not on the basis of what we are owed.  Because Christ forgave all, we are to forgive other freely and completely. 

• Look up and discuss Ephesians 4:32, Romans 5:8, and Ephesians 2:8-9.  

• There is a simple summary of this parable at http://www.gotquestions.org/parable-unforgiving-servant.html if you want a deeper explanation of this powerful story.  

• End with prayer that God will help us to be peacemakers, forgiving as we have been forgiven through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.