10 Super Spring-y Ways to Share God’s Word with Your Kids

Spring is finally here! I love springtime – the greening of the grass, the warming of the temperatures, the promise of new life after a cold, long winter. There are so many great activities that can be done with kids during this season, and so many wonderful Biblical applications that can be made. Following is a list of 10 super springy ways to share God’s Word with your kids this season.

1. We need to Grow as A Christian.

The Bible Lesson: Read 1 Peter 3:18 to your child. Talk with your child about when he was born. Look through old pictures, perhaps even an ultrasound picture if you have one. Ask: Are you the same size as you were when you were born? Why not? What if you were still that small? Of course you are not the same size you were as a baby – you have grown quite a bit! If you weren’t growing, we would think something was wrong with you! The same thing is true when you become a Christian. At first you are a baby Christian, but then you grow. You should always grow. If you do not grow as a Christian, we would think that something was wrong with you! What are some things that you can do to help you grow? (Read the Bible, attend church, pray, tell others about Jesus, etc.)

The Activity: Plant something with your child – something that will grow and grow and grow! My favorite thing to plant for this object lesson is a sunflower seed – one of those big ones that will grow much taller than your child. Help your child plant it in the ground and water it. Give him the job of watering it on a regular basis and pulling the weeds that might come along. As it grows, talk with him about the similarities between the way the sunflower grows and the way we grow in Christ.

The Application: Just as the sunflower needs good ground, we need a good foundation in Christ. Just as the sunflower needs to be watered, we need to read the word of God. Just as the sunflower needs to have weeds pulled from around it, we need to keep ourselves from evil. Just as the sunflower grows up high in the sky and shows the world its beauty, we need to show the beauty of Christ to all around us.

For another application of sunflower seeds to spiritual growth, see:

https://cherigamble.com/2014/08/24/to-my-boys-re-your-spiritual-growth/

2. Give your worries to the Lord!

The Bible Lesson: Read Matthew 6:25-34. Talk with your child about the passage you just read together. Ask: What types of things do you worry about on a regular basis? Did you know that God knows what we worry about and that He cares about each one! He loves you and will take care of you! Have your child write down several of the things he worries about (or do this as a family and write down your family concerns.) After you have written them down, spend time praying for them. Ask God to help you give your worries over to Him!

The Activity: This is an activity that will help you care for some of God’s creatures while also reminding you to give your worries over to God. Help your child collect several items which a bird could use to build its nest (such as pieces of string, tiny bits of cloth, old newspaper, etc). Hang the items you gather on a nearby tree or in another location that a bird can easily reach. Secure them enough so they don’t blow away, but make it so that the birds can easily take what they want. Then wait and see if any birds use your items for their nests! The items stand for your worries, and the birds remind us that God can take our worries away.

The Application: When we give our worries over to God, He will take them from us . . . and sometimes He will even use those situations we worried about to create something brand new!

3. God can Use YOU to help others!

The Bible Lesson: This activity also uses Matthew 6:25-34, but approaches it in a slightly different way. Read the Scripture with your child again. Then discuss how much God takes care of His creatures. Say: How does God take care of the birds? Does God ever use other people to take care of the birds? How? We can help the birds by giving them an easy place to find food . . . such as a birdfeeder!

The Activity: Make a bird feeder with your child. There are so many fun ways to do this! You can do anything you want, from simply rolling a toilet paper tube in peanut butter and covering it with bird seed to making an elaborate feeder that can work year after year. There is an amazing list of creative bird feeders (there’s even one made out of legos!) from Happy Hooligans. Check it out for some great ideas:

http://happyhooligans.ca/32-homemade-bird-feeders/

The Application: God takes care of the birds, and sometimes He uses people to do it. We are worth MORE than any bird, and God will take care of us, too. Are you willing to be a “bird feeder” to the people around you? Will you look for ways to help other people who may be hurting? God can use you in amazing ways if you are wiling! (This is another object lesson that can last all year long. Every time you see birds at the feeder, remind your child of this lesson and pray for the people around you who need your help!)

4. Satan Wants to Hurt All Who Follow Jesus.

The Bible Lesson: Read 1 Peter 5:8-9. Discuss with your child how we have a very real enemy. Say: This enemy wants to destroy us. He doesn’t want anyone to come to Jesus, and he wants to hurt all who do. We can see this happening in our world every day.

The Activity: I had to include this here because, if your neighborhood is like our neighborhood, the instant you hang up a bird feeder you will have squirrels trying to eat from it. We have a squirrel that comes back year after year, climbing our feeder and eating the food we set out for the birds. Why not take advantage of the pesky squirrels and tie them in to the object lesson? The next time you see a squirrel at the feeder, remind your child that we have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour . . .

The Application: Resist the devil! Don’t give up your faith! Keep feeding the birds – even if the squirrel gets in the way!

5. God Can Make Us Clean Again!

The Bible Lesson: Read 1 John 1:9 to your child. Say: This verse promises that, if we confess our sins, God will purify us. He will take away the sins and make us clean again! Talk with your child about the sins that he struggles with in his life. What is it that makes it hard for him to obey God? When we sin, our heart becomes stained and ugly . . . and it is impossible for us to take away that sin by ourselves. We need God’s forgiveness.

The Activity: Take your child outside on a warm day after it has rained. Find a huge mud puddle or pile of mud, and let him play in it. (Yes, this is a very messy activity . . . but it will make memories that will stay with him forever!) Have him name some of the sins that he struggles with as he scoops up piles of mud. When he has finished playing in the mud, say: You had a lot of fun playing in the mud, but look at this mess you made! You are filthy! How will you ever get clean again? Discuss. Take your child inside and help him clean himself up. (You might need to hose him off first.)

The Application: You had a lot of fun playing in the mud, but it made you pretty messy and you needed my help to get yourself totally clean again. In the same way, sin can seem pretty fun. We want to “play in it”, but it ends up making us dirty, and the only way we can get clean again is with God’s help. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!

NOTE: Be sure to take pictures of the mud playing fun!

For a fun devotion written for kids that you can read together after your child is all clean again, see:

https://cherigamble.com/2015/03/18/mud-pits-and-river-banks-a-devotion-just-for-kids/

6. Every Good and Perfect Gift is From God – It’s As If He “Pours” Down the Blessings Into Our Lives!

The Bible Lesson: Read James 1:17 with your child. Talk about all the blessings that God has given to you. How has He blessed you this past year, month, week, day? Make a list with your child of all the ways the Lord has blessed you.

The Activity: It rains in the spring a lot, so why not take advantage of the rain while making a Bible connection that will stay with your child forever. The next time you have a warm, spring rain (without lightning), let your child go outside and play in it! As he is playing, have him shout out ways that God has blessed him . . . remind him that God has poured out the blessings in his life, just like the rain is pouring outside! When he comes in soaked, remind him how he can soak up God’s blessings and love!

A Second Activity: After your child comes in and dries off, let him decorate an umbrella or rain poncho with ways that God has blessed him. Then, the next time it rains, he can be reminded of this activity all over again – and of the ways the Lord has blessed him!

7. God Can Help You SOAR!

The Bible Lesson: Take your child outside for a nice spring workout! Have him run a certain distance as fast as he can. Have him keep doing this to see if he can go any faster. How fast can he get his time? How tired is he? As he is resting, talk about how fast he ran, yet he still became tired. Say; We can become tired in our Christian walk, too. We can feel the stress of the world around us and it makes us sad and makes us lose strength. But God promises that He will renew our strength. In fact, with God’s help, we can SOAR! Read Isaiah 40:28-31 with your child. What does this say about soaring?

The Activity: Make a kite with your child. Decorate the kite in ways that will remind your child that God can help him soar. When he has a finished kite, take him out and let him fly it. Here are instructions on how to build a simple kite out of paper:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Paper-Kite-for-Kids/

The Application: Things that happen in life can be quite challenging and tire us out. Sometimes we might even feel like giving up. But God can help us through any struggle that we have. Not only will He help us run, He will help us SOAR!

8. Jesus is the Only Way to Heaven.

The Bible Lesson: Read John 14:6. Say: What did Jesus say about Himself in these verses? Jesus said that He is the only way to the Father. This is a lesson that many people today do not want to hear, but it is still true. Every other religion and every other attempt at salvation misses the mark completely. Jesus is the only way.

The Activity: Baseball is a favorite spring activity at our house, so much so that we practically go crazy with the different baseball schedules! (This year we have 5 different boys playing on 5 different baseball teams. Yikes!!!) Because of this, I simply had to include baseball activities in this list. Here is a simple, yet fun, way to help apply John 14:6 using baseball. Give your child a bucket of baseballs and a target that he will be unable to reach. Have him see how close he can get to that target by 1) throwing the ball, and 2) hitting the ball with his bat. When he consistently misses the target, say: I don’t understand, why couldn’t you hit the target?

The Application: This target was impossible to reach on your own. The only way you could possibly reach it is if you had help. In the same way, heaven is impossible to attain on our own. The only way we can reach heaven is with help . . . and that help comes from Jesus! He took the punishment for our sins and, when we accept Him, we know that we can reach the target – heaven.

9. Every Christian is a Part of the Body of Christ, and Together, We Can Do Great Things!

The Bible Lesson: Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. Talk with your child about how every Christian is a part of the body of Christ. Not every Christian looks the same, talks the same, dresses the same, or likes the same music, but every Christian is still part of the same body and every Christian is important. Sometimes we forget that the body of Christ is made up of Christians from all over. We spend so much time with our own group of Christians that we forget about the other groups that are out there.

The Activity: Give your child several packets of seeds. Be sure to keep them in their separate packets to start off with. Show these to your child and say: Let’s pretend that each of these packets of seeds represents a different group of Christians. They are pretty happy staying in their own packet, aren’t they? They don’t really want to mix with other groups. The green beans are happy being with green beans and the tomatoes are happy being with tomatoes. They almost forget that the others exist. However, God did not intend for us to stay in our own little groups. He wants us to work TOGETHER to do His work. Open the seed packets up and mix them together. When we work together, we can make beautiful things for the kingdom! Have your child use the seeds to make “seed art” – a beautiful picture of whatever he wants using many different types of seeds. See some excellent ideas of seed art here:

http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Food/Seed_Mosaic/Seed_Mosaic.html

The Application: When we work together, we can accomplish great things for God!

Bonus Activity: Use “grown up” foods from your seeds to make a yummy salad or meal . . . you can continue the application by pointing out to your child how bland a meal would be if we only ate one type of food. By eating all the different types of foods together, we get a balanced, delicious meal. EVERY CHRISTIAN is important to the Kingdom of God!

10. God Wants Us to Serve Others!

The Bible Lesson: Read John 13:5-17. Look at each other’s feet. Are they pretty dirty?  Say:  Back in Bible days, feet got really, really dirty. Cleaning the feet was a stinky, yucky job – one that was reserved for the lowest among them – the servant. Jesus, however, took the task of cleaning his disciples’ feet on Himself. He set an example of service . . . one that we need to continue today!

The Activity: Take your child on a service trip around your neighborhood. When spring begins, trash is often present where the snow piles used to be. Give your child a plastic bag and help him pick up this trash in his neighborhood or community. You might also want to take him to a local park for some clean up work.

The Application: As you work together, remind him that being a servant can sometimes be unpleasant, but, if Jesus was willing to wash His disciples’ feet, we should be willing to pick up trash in our neighborhood!

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I hope you enjoy these 10 springy ideas. If you did, please share this with your friends – they might enjoy them, too! Also, come on over and like my facebook page . . . and then let me know how it goes as you try out these activities with your children! (I LOVE pictures, so send them my way!!)

And if you are a homeschooling family, please check out my curriculum over the book of James. This is a 35 week curriculum that will help your children apply James to their every day lives. Find out more information (and see a sample week) here:

https://cherigamble.com/the-book-of-james-a-hands-on-homeschool-curriculum/

Have a fantastic spring, and don’t forget to keep being intentional as you raise godly kids!

Cheri