Five on Friday: New Family Traditions

As Asa is growing and understanding more of what we say and do and what goes on around us, each new holiday season brings a chance to dig deeper and think about how to make it meaningful for him (and eventually Anna Reaghan).  This year I went on a hunt to find some ways for our family to observe Lent.

I started out on Pinterest and then took a few more keyword searches to Google, but by and large Pinterest alone gave much a much broader range of ideas than I anticipated!  I pinned some ideas that especially struck to me this board.

The ones we have implemented so far include:

1. Lenten season crosses.  I actually saw this idea over the summer focusing just on Holy Week.  But we have adapted it for the entire Lenten season.  We purchased 4 blank canvases, and on each one I have masked a cross with tape.  Then we have used various colors for Asa to finger paint over the tape (and then peel the tape off when the paint is almost dry) to represent different stages of  Lent.  We used 2 shades of purple for the majority of Lent, 2 shades of green for Palm Sunday, red + black for Good Friday, and 2 shades of yellow for Easter Sunday.  Asa has loved making each canvas, and I think he is identifying the colors' significance more after physically interacting with them.

2.  Jellybeans.  At first  I was worried this idea might lean toward the idea of "be good for Santa," which is not my favorite.  But when I read the final step, I almost teared up over the VERY plain demonstration of God's grace and mercy.  The basic run down is there is a little poem that assigns different actions to different colors of jellybeans.  We changed it a little for our family/Asa's age, but here is the original:

Red- For the blood Jesus gave. Each morning you can sacrifice something specific that day.

Green- For the palm’s cool shade. Earn one by doing good, kind deeds like the people that provided shade for Jesus.

Yellow- For God’s light so bright. You can earn this for sharing Jesus’ light with others.

Orange- For prayers in the evening.

Black- For sweet rest at night. For going to sleep quietly without complaint.

White- For the Grace of God. This one is given free every day, just like God’s grace to us.

Purple- For His days of sorrow. Earn these by apologizing to anyone you hurt that day.

Pink- For a new tomorrow. These can be earned when you forgive those who hurt you.

And here is our version:

Red is for a verse we are memorizing together as a family:  The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  1 Corinthians 1:18
Green is for serving others (picking something up your sister dropped, sharing a toy, etc.)
Orange is for using kind words.
Blue is for getting ready for/going to bed with a happy heart and no fussing (after his more recent bout of tummy troubles, we have re-encountered some resistance to bedtime and Asa is again a little anxious about it, so this is a "fun" way to encourage him that he IS okay in bed)
Purple is for apologizing when you wrong someone else.
Pink is for forgiving someone.
Yellow is for telling someone about God.
White is for God's grace.

I sorted jellybeans by color and put them in juice glasses I labeled with a symbol and word to remind us of what each color represents.

After dinner each night, we talk about each color and Asa receives a jellybean for each color he earned.  He places those in a jar of his own that he will get to eat on Easter (he cannot wait!).  The kicker?  On Easter morning before Asa gets up, we'll fill up whatever space remains in his jar up to the rim with WHITE jellybeans--God's grace.  That just gave me chills when I read it.  What a child-oriented way of tangibly demonstrating God's unmerited grace.  We also decided to give Asa one white jellybean each night, reminding him each time that he did nothing to earn it.  Jesus earned us God's grace.  He is DELIGHTED over his white jellybean each night and dances around the kitchen saying, "Thank you for God's grace!  It is so yummy!  I am so happy I got God's grace!"  It makes me laugh every time.  But it's also great opportunity to reiterate again that WE (Matt & I) cannot give him God's grace.  Only God can give it, and only Jesus can earn it for us.  I just LOVE that he's "getting" little pieces of truth through this, and I cannot wait to top off his whole jar with a bunch of white jelly beans. :)
[And as an aside, if you are not a fan of artificial food coloring like we are careful about, Trader Joe's has jelly beans without artificial coloring!]

3.  Books.  I also picked up a few new books about Easter.  They are longer and more serious than some of the other children's books we have about Easter.  But Asa is starting to make serious observations and have sincere questions, so I do not think we are "ahead" of him by presenting a more detailed explanation of Easter.  One is Peter's First Easter by Walter Wangerin, Jr.  We are reading this in "chapters" as each section is pretty long and as it IS detailed I don't want to overwhelm Asa with the intensity.  The other is The Amazing Journey:  Jesus, Creation, Death, & Life.

4.  Jesus Tree.  Like our Advent Jesse Tree, the Jesus tree is a way to go through Bible stories leading up to the holiday.  For the Jesus Tree, I found a basic list of ideas going through major events and teachings from Jesus' life and tweaked just a few of them to other events/teachings I wanted to highlight.  Coincidentally, my mom found the same thing and planned to sew some for us!  So instead is going to sew the list I have developed.  What an amazing gift is that?!?

5.  During Holy Week, we have a cross on which we'll place a patch that reminds us of what was happening that week.

I found several other ideas that resonated with me, but we'll use those other years or when the kids are older.  For now, I am thankful for how these are pointing our hearts to Christ's work on the cross!