Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
John 15:13
Jesus talked a lot about giving on Day Four of Passion Week. Of course He had every right to do that since He was about to give the ultimate gift of His life on the cross for the sins of the world.
Encourage your children to give today as you talk about how much Jesus gave. Bake Easter cookies (see recipe below) in the shape of a cross to share with neighbors. As you make them, talk about Jesus’ gift to us. Say:
Everybody has done wrong things such as disobeying, lying, being unkind, etc. God calls this sin and there must be punishment for it. But Jesus loved us so much that He took the punishment for all the wrong things that were done or would ever be done. He died on the cross so we would not have to. We can now have a happy life forever with God.
In your giving today, don’t forget to give thanks to Jesus for His gift of life to us. Here’s some simple thankful songs Make up your own songs together.
My mother’s old-fashioned tea cookies recipe:
3/4 cup crisco or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 & 1/2 cup Self-rising flour
Mix all together, roll out, and cut into shapes
(If you don’t have a cross cookie cutter, roll out 2 small ropes & lay one across the other to make a cross.)
Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.
Ice with butter cream frosting:
1 box confectioner sugar
dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
(Emphasize the character quality of generosity to get your children thinking about giving, not just receiving. This lesson is designed to spend a week memorizing the verse and reinforcing it through enthusiastically telling in your own words 5 Bible stories and doing the activities to reinforce the lesson)
Bible Stories:
Acts 5:1-10 Ananias and Sapphira had plenty of money. They were not generous with it though. They did not want to give it to help the church. They even lied about how much money they had. They should have been generous and willing to give; then they would have been happy. But God had to punish them for telling a lie and not being generous.
Luke 12:16-21 There was a man who had a lot of money and things. He had a garden that produced a lot of fruit and vegetables. But instead of being generous and sharing some with others, he kept them all for himself. This displeased God so God took the man away so he couldn’t enjoy all his things. If the man had been generous he would have been happy. Happy is the generous man, the one who feeds the poor.
Ruth 2:1-13 Ruth and Naomi were poor. They had no money or food. But there was a generous man named Boaz who was kind and wanted to share his food with them. He let Ruth pick from his garden and he gave her water to drink when she was thirsty. Ruth was very grateful that Boaz was so generous. Ruth and Boaz later married and had a son. Boaz was a generous, happy man.
John 6:1-13 Jesus went on a mountain and many people followed him. The people got hungry and Jesus felt sorry for them. There was not enough food for everyone and nowhere to get anymore. There was a little boy there though who had 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. He brought them to Jesus to share with everyone. Jesus took the bread and fish and gave thanks to God for it. There was enough to feed all the people and then there were 12 basketfuls of leftovers. The little boy was happy he had been generous and shared his food. There was food leftover for him to take home because he shared all he had.
Mark 12:41-44 Jesus was in church one day watching all the people give their money. Many people came and put in lots of money. There was one lady who only had 2 pieces of money. Do you think she gave both pieces of money since that was all the money she had? She did! That was all the money she had but she wanted to give it away to help others. Jesus said that she had given more than all the others who gave because the others had money left when they gave, but this lady didn’t have anything left. She gave all she had. She was happy because she was generous.
Prayer: Help us to have a generous spirit
Activities:
Make a happy face and put the Bible verse on it.
Make a puzzle out of a picture of someone sharing
Pray all week with him about who your family should give a special gift to.
Let him help make a jar to put on table to collect money for the person God leads yall to give to
Pretend the stuffed animals are all poor. Let child use play money to give to each one
Give child a bag of candy and encourage him to enjoy giving to others
Make a list of who they will give to at Christmas and think of things they would like to give each one on the list. It’s not too early for yall to start shopping for those on your list!
Songs: (Just put the Bible verse to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)
Happy is the generous man, the generous man, the generous man.
Happy is the generous man.
The one who loves to give.
Here are some other verses on giving to share during the week:
Acts 20:35 It is better to give than receive. (can be put to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)
Luke 6:38 If you give, you will receive. (can be put to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)
