Take-a-way:
• I can bring glory to God by using what I’ve been through.
• God has led me through my life so far, and all of the experiences I have had and will have will contribute to who He made me to be.
• Although it’s good to think about how God has made you special, this doesn’t mean you should think about yourself all the time. Understanding you were made to glorify God prepares your heart to put God and others ahead of yourself.

Talk it over:
This week share some experiences that you have been through that can relate to what your child is facing.

A Splink is a SIMPLE way to LINK your family together spiritually.

It’s a FREE weekly email packed with ideas to help connect your family. Splinks are creative ways of interacting with your children with family devotional starters and ideas for family time. Splinks can also help you use teachable moments to pass along spiritual truths and life lessons while making memories or just having fun together. No matter where you are, it can always be time for a Splink!

Use the following 5 questions to help you determine if your child is ready to ask Jesus to be the Lord of their life. Remember, there is no magic to the questions. The main goal is to determine if your child recognizes that their own sin separates them from God and that Jesus’ death on the cross makes them right with God. You will also find some things to say if your child doesn’t seem to be grasping these spiritual concepts. Make sure you read the suggested verses as tools to help you.

Who is Jesus? Look Up Matthew 3:16-17.

This is an easy question to answer and will get your child comfortable with answering questions. Their answer will be pretty simple. “He’s God’s Son”.

What is sin? Then ask: Have you ever sinned? Look Up Romans 3:23.
Younger kids may not understand the word sin. In ChristKids, we teach kids that sin is lying, cheating, stealing, angry outbursts, doing bad things, or even thinking bad thoughts, etc. Talk about these things with your child recognizing that all of us sin. Feel free to help by talking about things that you may do wrong and how they get in the way of your friendship with God. Ultimately, you’re looking for your child to identify specifc things they do wrong.

What did Jesus do on the cross? Why did He have to die? Look Up 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
Again, these should be simple responses. “Jesus died on the cross.” or “Jesus died for our sins.” or “So we could be forgiven.”

NOTE: If you don’t feel that your child understands either what sin is or that Jesus died to take our sins away, then simply table the discussion. You might say something like: “I’d like us to keep talking about this more over the next few months.”

What happens to our sin when we ask Jesus to forgive us and we say or confess our sins out loud? Look Up 1 John 1:9.

Most responses will be very simple. “Jesus takes away our sins.”

Do you want to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life? If, yes, then great! This is the best part. Here is a prayer you may use. Have your child repeat each line after you.

“Dear Jesus, I am a sinner and I need you to save me. Thank you for dying on the cross. Because of this, I am forgiven. I want you to be the leader of my life. Help me live my life for you. Amen”.

Congratulations!

You’ve just led your child into a relationship with Jesus. There are few experiences as valuable as this! The next steps are very important. Encourage your child to read their Bible regularly and get baptized.

Week 1
Verse: Psalm 115:1 NLT Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory…

Phrase: Be like Jesus and use what you’re good at, to glorify God and tell Him He’s all that!

Week 2
Verse: Psalm 103:1 NLT Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

Phrase: Be like Jesus and use what you care about, to glorify God and help others out.

Week 3
Verse: Romans 8:28 NLT And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Phrase: Be like Jesus and use your story, to give God all the glory!

Week 4
Verse: John 3:30 NLT He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

Phrase: Be like Jesus every day, ‘cause God’s purpose for you is here to stay!

Starts October 24th

The Bible tells us that God is love. It says we must love God and love others. But what doesn’t that even mean? I love tacos. I love my mom. I love my chinchilla. When we talk about love we can mean lots of different things. But in 1 Corinthians 13, God lists a full description of the kind of love He’s talking about. In Love Wins, we will take this list to heart and take a close look at how we can live out God’s love and show the world how He has changed our hearts.

Starts September 12th

The Bible is the real story of real people and real places! This series invites kids on a trip through the pages of the Bible to discover what this amazing book has to do with our lives today! Venture into the Bible to find out what God has to say to us through His book!

Starts August 15

Starts July 11

Four Men Tear Up a Roof Let’s assist our friends in coming to Jesus! John 20:1-18

Snack

Ingredients
— chocolate icing, canned — graham crackers — graham cracker sticks — large marshmallows — licorice strings — paper plates — plastic knives or craft sticks

Each child will spread chocolate icing on one side of the graham cracker. This is the mat that the man was on. But, where is the man? Let’s make a man by using a marshmallow for his head and 5 graham cracker sticks
to make his body. Give each child one licorice string to break into 4 equal lengths. Place one end of each of these into the icing at the corners of the “mat.” These will be the ropes that the friends held on to in order to let the man down through the roof.

Know Your Bible

Ingredients
— Bibles

If your mom told you about what she saw at the gorilla exhibit at the zoo, and you told about what you saw there, and your brother told about what he saw there, would everybody’s story be exactly the same? The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (known as the Gospels) are the same way. Each one of these books was written by someone who was with Jesus, but they each tell it a little differently. Look up these three passages and see if you can see any differences in what they saw.

Matthew 9:2-8
Mark 2:1-12
Luke 5:18-26

Which one tells the least about getting the man through the roof?
Which one tells us how many friends there were?
Which one tells us in what city this happened?

Activity

Ingredients
— Legos/building toy

Build a person using Legos (or any other snap-together/building toy). Each person can make their own or you can make one together as a family. The friends in our story brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus on a mat, carried him up some stairs, and let him down through the roof. They were pretty determined and creative!

Let family members create silly ways that the Lego person has to be carried through the house. Here’s a sample: Dad has to carry the Lego person from the kitchen to nursery in a skillet on top of his head. Dad has to follow the instructions, then he gets to give someone else instructions that he makes up.

Who do you know who needs to have Jesus in their life?
How badly do you want that person to come to Jesus?
How determined are you?
As a family, decide what you could do to assist that person in coming to
Jesus … and then DO IT!

Paul is Shipwrecked God will help us past the obstacles. Acts 27

Obstacle Course

Together, create an obstacle course in your back yard or in the house. Each family member is going to have to go through it, so keep that in mind. Include things that you will have to climb over, crawl under, wiggle around, and avoid. Talk through the course and then each family member will go through it. (Get out the camera!)

Talk about the obstacles that get in our way as we try to live for the Lord. What keeps you from doing what God wants you to do, and living the life He wants you to live? Write each one of these on a separate piece
of paper and attach it to one of the obstacles in your course. Some things that may go on your papers are: life gets busy, don’t know what God wants me to do, selfishness, I’m scared, wrong friends. Talk about
how you can get around each of these obstacles with God’s help and be His Survivor.

Know Your Bible

Look up these verses together. We have used the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Find words like “obstacle”, “difficulties”, and “overcome”. Tell how each one of these can encourage us to be Survivors.

• Isaiah 57:14
• John 16:33
• 2 Corinthians 12:10
• 1 John 4:4

Science Experiment

Ingredients
— 4 small pans of boiling water — pasta — egg — tea bag — graham cracker

Provide 4 small pans of boiling water. In the first pan, put some small pasta (like angel hair spaghetti) that will cook quickly. In the second pan, boil an egg. In the third pan, place a graham cracker.

What happened to each of these?
The pasta got soft. When there are obstacles that keep us from our plans, sometimes we get soft and just don’t care. The egg got hard. When difficulties come, some people get hard and won’t let anyone help them. They harden their hearts and minds. The graham cracker fell apart. It was ruined. Some people fall apart
when difficulties come and they never get over it.

Now, put the tea bag in some boiling water. What happened? The tea bag changed, BUT so did the water. The water became full of flavor. Some people can take their difficulties and use them to make something good happen.

We believe that spiritual development happens in the home as well as in the church setting. We hope that the ideas in “The Kitchen Table” will help you engage as a family. It’s designed to help you connect with your child about the lesson they had the past week. Use all the ideas one night, or spread them out throughout the week. Enjoy!

Why are You Crying? Jesus’ resurrection is a time for celebrating … not crying. John 20:1-18

Snack

Ingredients
— can of biscuits — large marshmallows — 1 cup sugar — 1 T. cinnamon — 1 stick margarine, melted — spray cooking oil — cupcake baking pan — 2 cereal bowls

Your kids will love to help make this simple baked snack and love eating it even more! (And, it’s really inexpensive.)

Preheat the oven according to the can instructions. Lightly spray the cups of the cupcake baking pan with cooking oil. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a cereal bowl. Melt the margarine in a cereal bowl.

Flatten each biscuit as far as you can without tearing it. Coat one marshmallow in melted butter, then roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place the coated marshmallow in the center of one flattened biscuit. Bring the edges of the biscuit up around the marshmallow and pinch tightly to close. Coat this entire thing in melted butter, then roll it in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place in a cupcake cup with the pinched seam at the top. Continue until all the biscuits have been prepared. Bake the oven while they’re baking, though!)

Once you pull them out of the oven, immediately lift them out of the cupcake cups using 2 spoons. Be careful not to puncture them. While they are cooling a few minutes (and you MUST let them cool … very hot), talk about the following.

This yummy snack reminds me of Easter. Is there anything about it that reminds you of Easter? Jesus was wrapped in cloths and placed inside a grave. We wrapped the marshmallows up in the biscuits. What did the women find, though, when they came to put spices on Jesus’ body? He was gone! He wasn’t in the grave. Cut open one of the biscuits to find that the marshmallow is gone. Depending on how secure you pinch, the top may pop open during baking, so you can use that to say the grave was not closed when they came there.

Egg Hunt

Ingredients
— plastic eggs — slips of paper

Your house is a great place to have an egg hunt. Beforehand, write these questions on small pieces of paper and insert each one in a plastic egg. Add other eggs that have one small candy. Hide the eggs all over your house. You may want to indicate a certain color egg for each child and tell them they can only bring back eggs of their color. Shhh … don’t tell if you see any others. The kids will return to the kitchen table with their eggs. One at a time, open the eggs and read the questions. Ask the children to respond to the question before opening another egg.

Why do you think Mary was weeping?
What makes you cry?
How do you think you would have felt if you had found the grave empty that morning?
How do you think Mary felt on the way to the grave?
How do you think Mary felt on the way back from the grave?
Whose voice do you know, even with your eyes closed?
Why do you think Jesus said Mary’s name?
Do you think you might have done anything differently than Mary did?
Why is it so important that Jesus was no longer in the grave?

Science Experiment

Ingredients
— 4 uncooked eggs — egg carton — heavy book (at least 2 lbs.)

Place the eggs, pointy end down, in the egg carton and inform the kids that these are uncooked eggs, NOT boiled ones. Two eggs should be side-by-side one space in from the end of the carton, and the other two eggs should be side-by-side one space in from the other end of the carton. (A general rule is that the distance between the eggs should be about an inch less than the length of the book that you are using.) Let the kids experience the weight of the book. What do you think will happen if I put this book on top of these eggs? Now, gently place the book on top of the eggs. Did the eggs break? I sure thought those eggs would’ve been squished by that big book. But, they weren’t. Amazing! What is so amazing about Easter? Jesus did not stay dead. He was not “crushed” by Satan! We were surprised when the eggs weren’t ruined, and man, Satan must have been flabbergasted when his plan to crush Jesus in death backfired.